A leading member of the Law Society has dismissed a call for a law change by the father of Stephen Dudley who died after being assaulted at a school rugby practice.
The 15-year-old had an undiagnosed heart condition and died after the attack in June last year.
His 18-year-old attacker was on Thursday discharged without conviction at the High Court in Auckland on an original charge of manslaughter because he was not aware of the condition.
However Stephen's father Brent Dudley said his son would not have died if not for the assault, and he will campaign for changes to broaden the level of culpability.
The assailant's lawyer, John Munro, said the one punch delivered to the neck and three or four to the torso, were at the lower end of the assault scale.
Former Crown prosecutor and convenor of the Law Society's criminal law committee, Jonathan Krebs, said it was a highly emotive issue and one that would be tricky to address.
“It's a very, very difficult issue,” he told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report programme. “In our criminal law what's important is what a person knows and intends at the time they commit an act. If you don't know about it then you can't be responsible for it.”