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A south Auckland man who hit, kicked and stomped an elderly Chinese woman during a robbery of her Manurewa home was today jailed for life, with a minimum non-parole term of 20 years.
Olinale Ah You, 30, was sentenced by Justice Edwin Wylie at the High Court in Auckland, after he was found guilty by a jury in April of murdering 80-year-old Yan Ping Yang.
"The Yang family are deeply traumatised by your senseless actions. Your attack on Mrs Yang was callous and brutal and you must be held accountable for your actions," the judge said.
"You murdered a defenceless woman in her own home and your behaviour cannot be tolerated."
Ah You is already serving a 12 year prison sentence for two charges of aggravated robbery and three further robberies. He has a string of previous convictions for violent crimes.
Mrs Yang, 80, died three days after she was attacked at her home in Saralee Drive on June 11, 2008.
Ah You admitted at the beginning of his six-day trial that he attacked Mrs Yang but said he was guilty of manslaughter.
But the jury of six men and six women decided he was guilty of murder.
Some of the evidence of the attack came from a statement Mrs Yang made to police two days before she died.
In the attack Mrs Yang suffered extensive bruising to her head and face, extensive haemorrhaging in her skull, bruising in her chest, rib fractures on both sides, a fracture to her neck, and extensive bruising to her arms and legs.