A man who took a woman and a child hostage on the West Coast in an attempt to get police to kill him has been jailed for two years.
Jeremy Ivan Sutton, 26, was sentenced in Christchurch District Court after pleading guilty to threatening to kill, possessing an offensive weapon, and unlawfully carrying a pistol and breaching home detention.
Judge Stephen Erber sentenced him to two years jail.
Kidnapping charges had previously been dropped.
He had been on home detention when, armed with an imitation firearm, he took the hostages at a Runanga house, 8km northeast of Greymouth, on June 13.
He called police asking them to shoot him or he would shoot his hostages.
The two hour standoff ended when his 18-year-old girlfriend calmed him and walked him out of the house for surrender.
Sutton had mental health issues including an anxiety disorder and depression. He was unwell when he took the hostages, but not insane, the court was told today.
Defence counsel David Bunce said Sutton heard voices telling him it was a good idea to take the hostages to get police to kill him, because it was the only way out of the situation he was in.
"He was trying to make the police believe he was armed with a real weapon, and had hostages who were in danger and going to be killed."
It was an imitation gun and the danger had been to Sutton, not his hostages, Mr Bunce said.
But Judge Erber said that if the Armed Offenders' Squad had opened fire during the incident, one of the women could have been hit.
"You created a very dangerous situation for the victims, the police, and yourself. It could easily have led to tragedy."
Sutton had made his mental conditions worse by drinking far too much, Judge Erber said.
He had previously been sentenced to home detention for stealing an item worth $25,000 and also had convictions for threatening to kill and assaulting police.
