Two men were today sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of convicted paedophile Glen Stinson at a rural property in Foxton last year.
Bruce Tamatea, 46, and Aubrey Harrison, 27, were sentenced in the High Court at Palmerston North today.
Tamatea had pleaded guilty to the murder earlier this year, while Harrison was found guilty at a jury trial last month.
Tamatea was given a minimum non-parole period of 10 years, while Harrison was given 12 years.
A woman, who has name suppression, was sentenced to three years' jail for manslaughter.
Stinson, 57, was found beaten to death on a rural road near Foxton in the Horowhenua district in July last year.
Tamatea had told the trial of Harrison and the woman that he had killed Stinson, and that the other two were innocent.
He said they had wanted to scare Stinson after he sexually molested a young girl.
Stinson was out on bail at the time of his death in Foxton. He was waiting to be tried for raping a girl under the age of 12 and had served prison time for offences on girls dating back to 1967.
The trio had driven Stinson to Himatangi and then Foxton on the night of the killing, and Tamatea said he then "went too far", bashing him with a hammer and stomping him.
"I had the hammer, I used the hammer. It was only supposed to be a bash."
Justice Forrest Miller, in sentencing the pair today, said child abuse was regarded with revulsion in the community.
"The fact you were reacting to it was perhaps the most distinctive feature of this case."
