11, 6 1/2-year prison terms for McFelins

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 6

11, 6 1 /2-year prison terms for McFelins

PA Auckland Paul McFelin, the man who masterminded the kidnapping of Gloria Kong, aged 14, near Oamaru, on June 29, was yesterday jailed for 11 years. McFelin’s sister, Karen, aged 24, was jailed for 6% years, when they appeared in the High Court at Auckland.

Mr Justice Hillyer told them it was one of the most serious and terrible crimes.

He said that the pair had made themselves liable to. a maximum of more than 50 years imprisonment but he added that, in his view, savage prison sentences did not deter others from offending. His Honour, who heard the five-week trial of the McFelins at Timaru, said the jury had reached a proper and accurate verdict.

“I have not the slightest doubt that you are both

guilty of the offences,” he said.

Paul McFelin, aged 31, was sentenced to 11 years for kidnapping, four years for burglary of the Kong household, five years for aggravated robbery, five years for violently rendering Gloria Kong incapable of resistance and two years jail for car conversion. His Honour sentenced Karen McFelin to 6% years jail for kidnapping, 3M years jail for burglary and rendering Gloria Kong incapable of resistance, and two years for car conversion. He ordered that all sentences be served concurrently. The Court was told that two others involved in the offences, David Larnach and Paul George, had been sentenced to seven years and 5% years jail respectively after pleading guilty to kidnapping Miss Kong at gunpoint and demanding a $120,000 ransom from her

parents. His Honour told the McFelins: “These were terrible offences, planned meticulously and carefully. “You broke in on this peaceful family after skulking around on two previous nights. You tied up the inhabitants of the house and their visitors and threatened them with guns and took money from them.” His Honour said the intruders wore hoods over their heads and burned their clothing after kidnapping Gloria. Kong, using the family car so they would not be traced. After being kept in a house for more than 20 hours, Gloria Kong was left in a hay barn where she might have died, he said. He praised the girl’s courage in escaping from her bonds at the cost of some pain. Her wrists showed signs of the rope marks, he said.

The penalty had to ex-

press the disquiet he felt because, throughout the whole matter, there had been not the slightest indication of sorrow or regret from the McFelins. “Even now there is no expression of regret,” his Honour told the couple. He said that penalties normally had to bear some relationship to those imposed in similar cases, but, to his knowledge, there had been no similar crime committed in New Zealand. He said that Paul McFelin was the ringleader, instigator, and planner of the kidnapping. He drew the others into it and even involved his parents and wife who were called to give evidence. Earlier, counsel for the couple said both still maintained they were innocent. When the McFelins were convicted after their Timaru trial counsel said that an appeal against conviction would be lodged.