JAIL FOR MAN WHO BEAT SON TO DEATH FOR SMOKING DRUGS

A man beat his son to death because he did not want him smoking drugs,
the High Court at Gisborne was told yesterday.

Rangi Kotura Wano, 44, of Tuai, northwest of Wairoa was sentenced to 4
1/2 years' jail for the manslaughter of his 15-year-old son Rocky
Wano, Justice Patterson allowing maximum discount from a starting
sentence of seven to eight years. Wano previously pleaded guilty to
the charge which had been reduced from murder.

The court was told Wano went in search of Rocky on December 28 last
year, after receiving a phone call from a person concerned the boy was
intoxicated.

He found Rocky on the roadside with friends and while Rocky sat in a
vehicle nearby, Wano began beating him with such anger that the
friends fled.

Wano kicked and punched Rocky to the ground then put him on to the
deck of the vehicle and drove him to another family member's house.

There, Wano further assaulted Rocky, ramming him into the bonnet of
another vehicle.

Despite being unconscious, Rocky was put back into the car and punched
further before being driven home and placed on a mattress in the spare
bedroom.

Wano then left the house, returning later to call an ambulance.

Defence counsel Steve Manning said a pre-sentence report wrongly
stated that Wano had no remorse.

When an ambulance officer pronounced Rocky dead, Wano cried
hysterically, hugged Rocky's body and said repeatedly: "What have I
done?"

While Wano lacked the ability to articulate his remorse to the
professional people who interviewed him, his desperation was widely
known in the Tuai community, Mr Manning said.

He denied prosecutor Denys Barry's submission that rather than getting
his son medical treatment Wano went to thank the person who made the
earlier phone call.

When Wano left the house, Rocky's mother was wiping his injuries with
a flannel.

Neither she nor the three other adult relatives at the house realised
the extent of his injuries. They thought he was simply sleeping off
the effects of his earlier drug indulgence.

Even the ambulance officer said that she was unable to tell Rocky had
been assaulted, Mr Manning said.

Mr Barry said the main aggravating feature was the degree of violence
used on Rocky, who was physically vulnerable being intoxicated and
only weighing 47kg.

The sequential nature of the violence showed that it was not a
spontaneous burst of temper but a chapter of brutality over a
significant amount of time.

Mr Manning said Wano, was otherwise a respected member of the
community, had worked all his adult life as a grader driver, and only
had one previous conviction for hunting on somebody else's property.

Wano had 20 supporters in the court.

Sentencing Wano Justice Patterson said that he had perhaps received a
greater credit than usual but he was unlikely to ever reoffend.