The father of slain Oamaru teenager William Lewis was shocked and angry about the sentence handed down to his son's killer yesterday.
''I can't believe it. It is the sickest joke,'' Peter Lewis said.
Daniel Ethan Smith (now 20) stabbed William three times in the back during an altercation in Oamaru on April 1, 2010.
He was yesterday sentenced in the High Court at Timaru to five years nine months' jail for the manslaughter of William (16) on April 1, 2010.
Smith's sentence replaced one of life imprisonment, with a minimum period of 10 years before parole, imposed in June 2011, after he was convicted of William's murder.
But the Appeal Court overturned that verdict and ordered a retrial.
Last month, Smith was found guilty of manslaughter and he was sentenced yesterday.
Having already served about four years five months in custody since his arrest, Smith would be eligible for parole, which William's family said after sentencing they would fight.
William's family and supporters were clearly angry at Smith's sentence.
''He will get out and do it again,'' one person yelled in court yesterday.
''I hope he doesn't kill your kid, Your Honour,'' another said to Justice Rachel Dunningham.
Five victim impact statements were read to the court from William's family, including his parents and a tearful younger brother, Jacob (13).
William's stepmother Tania Lewis told Smith: ''What goes around, comes around and one day you will get yours.''
During about 40 minutes while the victim impact statements were read, Smith sat emotionless and mostly motionless in the dock, head up but eyes down, never looking at William's family.
When Justice Dunningham started her 21-minute sentencing, he looked at her, again showing no emotion even when the final sentence was delivered.
After sentencing, William's parents found it difficult to express what they felt about the sentence, grasping at words like ''outrage'', ''sick joke'', ''unbelievable'', ''bizarre'' and ''very upset''.
''I'm gutted to think William's life is worth just five years, nine months,'' William's mother, Sue Brokenshire, said about a son she had known for only 16 years, 23 days, 19 hours and 15 minutes.
She hoped Smith would serve the full sentence and not be paroled.
''The children are very upset. It's so hard to explain it to a child,'' she said.
Mr Lewis said he was angry at a system which, he felt had failed his son, his wife and William's stepmother Tania and the family.
He was at a loss about what to do, acknowledging there was probably nothing but to fight Smith's parole.
''It's just bizarre. People get longer than this for fraud. To get five to six years for taking a life ...''
Asked if he could now move on, Mr Lewis replied, shaking his head: ''I don't know.''
Then added an emphatic: ''No''.
''How can anyone get over this? All the family - none of us have even started to grieve.
''It's taken four and a-half years to ... go from murder to this. It's just unbelievable.''
Mr Lewis praised some of those involved - the Crown prosecutor, Victim Support and police - but was scathing of the justice system, how it treated victims and how, in his view, it favoured criminals and their defence.
Mr Lewis said the murder conviction was critical because Smith would be on lifetime parole and could be recalled to jail, he said.
That really would have been a life sentence, he said.
But the appeal overturned that decision on points of law.
''We were quite devastated to have to go back to another trial, but once you get these high-powered lawyers involved, it's just a game to them.''
The manslaughter verdict at the second trial was a shock.
''How can you stab someone three times in the back, and that's not murder?''While he was not allowed to put it in his victim impact statement, Mr Lewis wanted to get this message out:
''He [Smith] will do it again. Someone else will have to go through all this again.''
While William's family were vocal in their condemnation of the sentence, the Smith family did not want to comment to the Otago Daily Times.
