The systemic disadvantage suffered by Māori helped to create the conditions in which Karen Anne Ruddelle stabbed and killed the man she loved, a judge has found.
Karen Ruddelle has been sentenced to 11 and a half months' home detention after being found guilty of manslaughter. Photo: RNZ / Matthew Theunissen
Ruddelle was this morning sentenced to 11-and-a-half months' home detention after a jury found her not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
She stabbed her partner Joseph Ngapera twice in the chest early in the morning of 14 November 2018.
Ruddelle claimed she was acting in self-defence due to the years of domestic violence, and out of fear for her son.
In the raw and emotional sentencing at the High Court in Auckland, Ruddelle spoke directly to Ngapera's whānau.
"I cannot take back what I have done, and again, I am sorry. I have divided your family by taking from you a beloved son, a father, a brother, an uncle, a cousin and grandfather."
Ngapera's sister-in-law Pride Ngapera told the court she was not ready to forgive Ruddelle.
"No-one deserves to die in the horrendous way that Joey was subject to. As we were slowly coming to terms with losing Joey, less than five months after Joey's death, we lost another brother in April 2019," she said.
"Just when we thought thought things couldn't get any worse we lost Joey's first-born son in September 2019."
His sister Ngaire described how upsetting it had been to hear her brother maligned during the trial.
"Listening at court made it sound like he was the defendant and she was the victim. Yet we buried the victim - Joey," she said.
"She stabbed him twice, not once but twice. She lunged at him both times. She pulled the knife out after the first stab and then stabbed him again."
Ruddelle and Ngapera had been at a Manurewa bar, and continued drinking when they got home.
They started arguing and she became fearful, calling to her grown-up son for help, but it was her 14-year-old boy who came out and confronted Joseph Ngapera.
Ruddelle said it was out of fear for her son that she picked up a knife and fatally stabbed her partner twice in the chest.
Justice Palmer accepted that Ruddelle could reasonably have expected Ngapera to harm them, given his violent past.
He said Ruddelle had experienced a lifetime of harm, being exposed to violence and alcohol from a young age and having relationships with numerous violent men.
"Ms Ruddelle repeatedly sought help against violence in her life, but that had led to short-term response at best, and removal of her children at worst."
There are records of 80 family violence incidents involving Ruddelle and between 2015 and 2018, she called police 16 times, usually after she and Ngapera had been arguing.
Justice Palmer was critical of the Department of Corrections for initially providing what he described as a "once over lightly" pre-sentence report recommending imprisonment, and also of the Crown for refusing to consider accepting a guilty plea to manslaughter.
"If the Crown had been willing to explore a sentence indication to facilitate it, a guilty plea may well have been forthcoming," he said.
"In retrospect, the time and public expense of a two week trial may have been saved."
Justice Palmer referred to a report prepared by domestic violence expert Professor Denise Wilson, from AUT.
"I agree that Professor Wilson's report portrays a compelling picture of the social and cultural disadvantage you have suffered, which many Māori have systemically suffered.
"Not only were your circumstances of social entrapment relevant to your culpability of your offending, but your exposure to the preconditions of that, through a life of alcohol and violence, was systemically mandated by the social dynamics of New Zealand society."
Justice Palmer said Ngapera's death has caused a world of hurt.
"I do not see imprisonment achieving the purposes and principles of sentencing, or balancing the harm done, here. Irrespective of where you live, you will have to live for the rest of your life with guilt and whakamā that, although you did not intend to do so, you killed the man you loved."
Justice Palmer's sentence has been published as a decision of public interest.