Source: Radio New Zealand
The family of a young man shot and killed by a hunter on Stewart Island last year say the hunter’s failure to identify his target has left them facing a “lifetime of hell”.
Ashburton builder Paul William John Stevens, 39, has avoided jail time and instead been sentenced to five months’ home detention for shooting Jock Davies, 21, last July.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of careless use of a firearm causing death.
At the Invercargill District Court on Tuesday, Judge Russell Walker ordered Stevens to make $20,000 in reparation payments, split equally between a scholarship in Jock Davies’ name for West Otago students and a New Zealand Deerstalkers Association hunter safety course.
Davies’ mother Sarah Davies told the court she never anticipated her son, who was a cancer survivor, would not return from the week-long much-anticipated hunting trip with his father and brothers.
“I miss Jock every day, I miss the twinkle in his eye, his naughty sense of humour. I miss his laughter, the way he used to light up a room. I miss his resilience, his kindness and I miss him leaving the lights on. Jock was one special human,” she said.
Davies’ oldest brother George Davies told Stevens that he had failed as a firearms licence-holder and the family was facing “lifelong effects” as a result.
He spoke of the trauma of seeing his brother after the shooting.
“The impact of having to carry my dead brother up the hill to rescuers is something I will have to live with forever, it’s something no-one should have to do. It was meant to be a trip of a lifetime which turned into a lifetime of hell,” he said.
Davies’ brother Tom Davies described the eight months since the death as a “living nightmare”.
“I’ve found myself in a dark hole where I didn’t know what was right or wrong anymore. It has been a battle to leave the house some days,” he said.
Paul William John Stevens in court. RNZ / Katie Todd
Jock Davies had been intending to join him in Christchurch at teachers’ college and it left a “huge ache” in his heart and soul to know that would not happen, he said.
“I’m trying my absolute hardest to be there for my family as we navigate a new way of life,” he said.
Davies’ father Peter Davies said his son had touched many lives, with his funeral attended by more than 1000 people.
“As a dad there should have been so many more proud moments, but now there’s only memories,” he said.
Stevens sat quietly, crying, as the victim impact statements were read to the court.
His lawyer Grant Fletcher told the court that Stevens, a father of two, could not possibly regret his actions more.
“He would do anything to make it right but obviously he can’t,” he said.
“He’s offered his most heartfelt, most sincere, most genuine remorse and regret.”
Reading from a summary of facts, Judge Walker said Stevens and Davies were part of the same group of eight people on the week-long trip, hunting in the South Lords River block.
The group split up on the morning of 6 July and Davies was dropped off from a dinghy, while Stevens and another associate went in the opposite direction to hunt.
Stevens told police the terrain was “gnarly and hard-going,” he said.
“You said you were not used to hunting in such thick and challenging bush.”
Stevens heard a shuffling noise 20 metres away and saw a “dark shadowy image”, he said.
“Confident it was a deer and not wanting to miss the opportunity, you chambered a round in your rifle and fired a single telescopically-aimed shot,” he said.
“You aimed for what you believed was the neck area of the deer.”
A rescue helicopter was dispatched at about 11am but when it arrived two hours later Davies was dead, he said.
Judge Walker found Stevens’ actions to show a “medium-to-high level of carelessness”.
Stevens “would and should have been well aware of the dangers of hunting” but did not attempt to sight the deer with his own eyes, he said.
“The terrain was challenging for you to the extent that you discussed turning back. You were clearly aware that others would have been in the area,” he said.
He found Stevens’ remorse to be genuine and said Davies’ death would have a life-long impact.
“I accept the mental health impact that this has had and will continue to have upon you. It is rightly described as profound,” he said.
From a starting point of 18 months’ imprisonment, Walker deducted eight months for mitigating factors and converted the resulting 10 months’ imprisonment into five months’ home detention.
He also ordered the forfeiture of Stevens’ rifle and ammunition.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand