
A Runanga man who supplied the rifle used to shoot a Greymouth mother has been jailed for three years and four months for his role in the 2017 murder.
Anthony Robert Moore was sentenced in the High Court in Greymouth on Monday for unlawful possession of a firearm and perverting the course of justice by concealing evidence.
The 48-year-old, dressed in jeans and a hoodie, sat impassively in the dock during the hearing. As a victim impact statement was being read to the court he put his head in his hands.
In June, George Sean Warren (45) was sentenced to life imprisonment after he admitted murdering mother-of-three, Hayley Williams, at her Marsden Rd home. Her children were present at the time of the killing in October last year.
Warren will serve at least 17 years in jail before he can be considered for parole.
The victim impact statement from Ms Williams's mother Christine Mehrtens was read out in court by a victim support worker.
Mrs Mehrtens said that she did not know Moore but she believed he was a friend of her daughter's.
Addressing Moore, she said: "You have left her three sons without a mother. You were her friend and you gave the firearm to a dangerous, uncontrollable madman. Did you think about what he might do with it? Your actions contributed to her death, which was a tragedy for me and her three young sons. They are never going to see their mother again.
"I used to talk to her every day - now I don't and I miss this so much.
"Nothing you can say will help with my grief and loss. I have been in a black hole since this happened.
"You provided this gun that was used to cruelly take Hayley's life."
Justice David Gendall said Warren had asked Moore for a gun, claiming he needed protection from gang members, who had been threatening him.
In 1998 Moore had been declared unfit to hold a firearms licence.
"Yet you had two - the one you gave Warren, and another one," Justice Gendall said.
Some hours after Moore gave Warren the loaded gun, he drove to Ms Williams's house and fatally shot her.
Moore had also attempted to conceal evidence when he texted witnesses and hid his cellphone from police.
Lawyer Richard Bodle said there was nothing Moore could say to take away the pain and suffering from Ms Williams's family and friends.
"The remorse he is feeling pales into insignificance to what the victim's family is going through," Mr Bodle said.
Ms Williams was a friend of Moore and if he had known what Warren was going to do with the rifle he would not have given it to him, he said.
"However, he (Moore) accepts that he knew Warren was going to do something illegal."
Family and friends of Ms Williams, including her father and sister, sat quietly in the back of the courtroom throughout.