Fatal bashing of
transvestite brings life term 12.05.2004
Lawyers acting for a man convicted of murdering
a South Auckland cross-dresser yesterday failed in a bid to get him a sentence
of less than life imprisonment.
Joseph Tua Coleman, known as Bucket, was found guilty by a jury in
the High Court at Auckland in March of murdering glue-sniffing George (Georgie
Girl) Matehaere in December 2002.
Defence counsel Steve Bonnar and Anna Johns said that life
imprisonment would be "manifestly unjust" given the circumstances of
the case.
But Crown prosecutor Mark Davies argued that life was the
appropriate sentence, and his view was upheld by the trial judge, Justice Barry
Paterson.
Sentences of less than life for murder are intended for cases such
as mercy killings or suicide pacts gone wrong.
Coleman took to Ms Matehaere with a baseball bat after seeing her
with a plastic bag containing a spray can at the slum apartment complex in
Albert St, Otahuhu, where they both lived.
She was taken to Middlemore Hospital but was discharged after four
hours' observation, her condition not having deteriorated and the effect of the
intracranial bleeding not visible at that stage.
After returning to the Albert St units her condition worsened and
she was taken back to hospital. She died five days later.
Coleman went on the run but was captured on January 15, 2003.
Mr Bonnar told the judge the offending was the culmination of a
long period of difficulties in the sub-standard apartments.
Coleman, a protective father and grandfather, was concerned about
the effects of Ms Matehaere's glue-sniffing on his and other children living at
the complex.
He "reached breaking point" and decided to assault Ms
Matehaere, but there was no evidence of extensive premeditation.
Mr Bonnar said that death was caused by a single blow and was not
the result of a prolonged or particularly vicious beating.
He said it was "entirely possible" that Ms Matehaere
would still be alive if she had received appropriate diagnosis and treatment at
Middlemore Hospital.