28 Apr 2016

Father jailed for four years for killing son

2:16 pm on 28 April 2016

A Whangarei man will spend four years in prison for killing his son after a struggle with a knife.

Phillip Beazley, 61, pleaded guilty to manslaughter after the fatal stabbing of his 25-year-old son Leonard Kingi, in January last year.

The High Court heard the two men had been drinking into the early hours, on the deck of Beazley's house in Tikipunga, when an argument broke out.

Beazley said his son attacked him with a knife and he had wrestled it off him and reacted in self-defence.

Mr Kingi died of a deep knife wound that passed through his lung, and ambulance officers who attended found Beazley kneeling and embracing his son's body.

Justice Patrick Keane said Beazley could have thrown the knife well away but chose not to - and now bitterly regretted his actions.

He said the Whangarei man would have to live with what he had done for the rest of his life.