A judge sentencing a 25-year-old man for a fatal stabbing has warned that if problems with alcohol and violence on the Kapiti Coast are not addressed, more people will die.
Tristim Eastham has been sentenced to five years and 11 months in jail for the manslaughter of 20-year-old Sean Strongman-Lintern who died in a carpark outside a bar on 15 September 2012.
At the High Court in Wellington on Thursday, Justice Ron Young noted it is the second time this year that the court has sentenced a young man for killing another young man on the Kapiti Coast.
The judge was referring to the previous case of Izak Millanta, whose killer was jailed for six years for manslaughter.
Justice Young said more deaths will occur if alcohol-fuelled violence is not stopped on the Kapiti Coast.
"Something is wrong in the community as small as this when this happens. Other serious assaults, maybe other killings, are going to occur if this carries on."
Sean Strongman-Lintern's mother, Nichole Craig, told the court that since her son's death she has been unable to work in social services and teaching, and has rented the family home out to pay the mortgage.
