A woman who admitted her part in the murder of Jack McAllister has been granted an opportunity to appeal her sentence.
In 2018, Georgia Dickey (20) pleaded guilty to having been a party to the murder of Mr McAllister in Invercargill on June 7, 2017.
A judgement released by Justices David Collins and Murray Gilbert yesterday says she was one of three people convicted of murdering Mr McAllister and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum period of imprisonment of 10 years.
In July 2018, she filed a notice of appeal against her sentence.
In September 2020, Dickey abandoned her appeal without telling her lawyer.
‘‘The Crown and Ms Dickey’s counsel were concerned Ms Dickey may not have fully understood what she was doing.
‘‘The court shared those concerns and appointed an independent lawyer to speak to Ms Dickey. That lawyer reported that Ms Dickey insisted that she wished to abandon her appeal.’’
However, her lawyer had since filed an application to withdraw the abandonment, meaning if granted, she could appeal the sentence.
‘‘Ms Dickey has sworn a supporting affidavit saying she is ‘still kind of confused about [her] situation’.’’
The justices said the circumstances of Dickey’s original abandonment of her appeal ‘‘were exceptional’’.
‘‘The issues raised by her proposed appeal are important and the merits of her proposed appeal ought to be properly considered, particularly given the fact that she is a young person currently serving a sentence of life imprisonment.’’
Her appeal will be heard alongside the sentence appeal of one of her co-offenders, Christopher Brown, on March 15.
