Father who killed son sentenced

Press, 10 December 1983, Page 9

Father who killed son sentenced

PA Auckland A man, aged 20, convicted of the manslaughter of his son, aged four months, was sentenced to four years jail when he appeared in the High Court at Auckland yesterday. Toko Toru Rivers, aged 20, unemployed, of Otara, had been found not guilty by a jury of the murder of his son on December 29 but guilty of manslaughter. Rivers had pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.

In his final submission, defence counsel, Mr Simon Lockhart, Q.C., said that Rivers had suffered tremendously and was full of remorse after the death of his son.

"Rivers had been terribly upset. In the time he has been in custody he has been

tearful and depressed,” said Mr Lockhart. Mr Justice Chilwell told Rivers that the fact that he was drunk did not justify the killing of his son. “You became insanely furious and took out all your emotions on your son,” he said.

“An appropriate sentence for you would be five or six years, but because you have been in prison so long, and because I consider the society in which you live must carry some blame, I propose a form of apportionment.

“So, instead of reducing your term from six to five years, I propose to reduce it from six years to four years to account for one year in jail and an apportionment of one year for society letting you down.”