The Star: November 26, 2020

Thursday November 26 2020 The Star
THERE WILL be many who
will polarised over the defence
and appeal costs for Renee
Duckmanton’s killer Sainey
Marong.
His lawyers have received just
over $189,000 so far to defend
him, which covers his High
Court trial and appeals to the
Court of Appeal and Supreme
Court.
He lost all three. No surprises
there.
Marong killed Duckmanton,
a sex worker, after he picked her
up from the city’s red light district
in May 2016. The murder
was described as “cold-blooded”
and “particularly callous and
cruel.”
Most murders of sex workers
are sadly very brutal. Often the
perpetrator has an in-built hatred
or disdain for women. Sex
workers by the very nature of
what they do can be easy targets.
In Duckmanton’s case, she
was strangled and her body set
on fire.
At his High Court trial,
the jury was told the murder
appeared to have a degree of
planning.
It was a point he used as a lever
to go to the Court of Appeal.
But the Court of Appeal
accepted that Marong had
conducted multiple internet
searches “on matters relevant
to killing a Christchurch sex
worker and avoiding detection”.
It found the murder involved
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
The question of legal aid
From the
editor’s desk
Barry Clarke
Renee Duckmanton
Sainey Marong was found guilty of murdering sex worker
Renee Duckmanton.
calculated or lengthy planning,
with a high level of brutality,
cruelty, depravity or callousness.
Not content with that decision,
Marong then went to the
Supreme Court to contest the
Court of Appeal’s decision,
claiming a miscarriage of justice.
Marong claimed that his
internet searches before
Duckmanton was killed,
which featured prostitutes,
rape, kidnapping and
necrophilia, were not directly
relevant to the way she was
actually killed, which was by
strangulation.
He also argued the Court of
Appeal should not have taken
account of his actions after the
killing to dispose of the body –
and that Duckmanton’s small
stature should not have been
taken into account.
But the Supreme Court was
having none of it and dismissed
his appeal which was released
with this week.
The legal aid system is a good
and fair one in a just and open
society. But spurious grounds
for appeals like Marong’s should
be looked at.
•Marong was sentenced to life
with a non parole period of 18
years.
– barry@starmedia.kiwi
OPINION 29
Sanity
finally
prevails in
Davids saga
COMMONSENSE has finally
prevailed in The People’s Choice v
Alexandra Davids saga.
The left-leaning political group
in Christchurch local body politics
was always going to be on a
hiding to nothing when it was revealed
they were planning to oust
Davids from her role as Linwood-
Central-Heathcote Community
Board chair.
Newstalk ZB’s Chris Lynch set
the situation alight on air when he
called The People’s Choice board
members a “bunch of bastards”
for trying to unseat Davids, an
independent board member.
That comment was reported in
the following day’s Star and from
there the issue snowballed.
The following week, The Star
reported two members of a local
residents association had emailed
Jacinda Ardern over the matter.
The People’s Choice is aligned to
Labour.
Later that day, The People’s
Choice issued a statement saying
they were withdrawing their
application for a vote to on the
community board to appoint a
new chairperson.
Someone further up the
command chain has pulled the
barbarians back from the gates.
But I suspect they will return.
Leaking pipes and request to save water not related
I GET a bit frustrated when
I see commentators putting
two and two together and
coming up with a number that
isn’t four.
We have an increase in estimated
leakage from our pipes
and at the same time we are
asking people to conserve water
use. They are not related to each
other.
We know it’s going to be a
hot summer. And we know
household demand for water in
Christchurch generally doubles
in summer compared with
winter, mainly because people
start watering their gardens and
lawns.
Mayor
Lianne Dalziel
It’s this peak demand we
are targeting, which is in the
early evenings when parts of
the city may use water faster
than the network can pump it
to fill the reservoirs.
It makes good sense to do this
watering after the sun goes down
in the evening or before it rises
in the morning. And when you
do, you are helping ease the pressure
on the system, so everyone
benefits.
So, what about the increased
leakage and the work that
needs to be done on the
network of pipes? That’s one of
the key issues for the Long Term
Plan.
The decision made by the
city council to use its renewals
budget to fund the repair of
the earthquake-damaged pipes
when it signed the cost-sharing
agreement has made budgeting
incredibly challenging over the
past few years.
We clearly need to
refocus that approach at the
same time as having a very
open conversation with you
about what the trade-offs might
be.
Black Friday. A great
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