Lorraine Smith in the dock during her sentencing, for the murder of her 13-year-old granddaughter, in the High Court at Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Grandmother who strangled teen spared life sentence

Author: Melissa Nightingale - NZ Herald,
Publish Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2019, 12:50PM

A Whanganui woman who fatally strangled her teenage granddaughter has escaped a life sentence.

Lorraine Smith, 59, used a necktie to strangle 13-year-old Kalis Manaia Smith, overpowering the teen as she tried to fight back, Crown prosecutor Michele Wilkinson-Smith told the High Court at Wellington this morning.

According to the summary of facts, Smith and Kalis had been arguing and fighting on March 15, before Smith asked Kalis to go outside and help her close the windows of the sleepout.

She grabbed a necktie from the kitchen table and followed close behind Kalis, pulling the girl's hood over her face before wrapping the tie around her throat and strangling her with it.

Wilkinson-Smith said the murder was "sadly clearly intentional".

"This was a young child, she could have potentially been resuscitated," Wilkinson-Smith said.

Smith called Kalis' father and told him something had happened, then called 111 and admitted killing her granddaughter. She drove to the hospital after taking an excessive amount of anti-depressants.

Kalis' father arrived at the house and found his daughter's body. He began CPR, but Kalis had been left too long without help, and with the tie still tight around her neck.

Smith, who sat hunched over in the dock and sobbed throughout today's sentencing, pleaded guilty in May to murdering Kalis, a Whanganui City College student.

Defence lawyer Peter Brosnahan argued the circumstances of the case made it "manifestly unjust" for Smith to receive a life sentence.

He said Smith had suffered abuse from an early age, had troubles throughout her adult life, cared for a handicapped son, and for three grandchildren who dealt with their own mental health issues.

"The compounding effect of all of that on this woman over the duration of her adult life means that she has suffered enormously," he said.

"Every day she goes to sleep and every morning she wakes up living with what she's done. She's going to carry that, regardless of your honour's decision today, for the rest of her days."

Kalis Smith's body was found at a property on Niblett St in March. Photo / Bevan Conley

Justice Francis Cooke spoke of Smith's battles with severe mental health issues throughout her life and said she suffered from "carer burnout".

"Ms Smith has devoted her life to caring for her family, to the detriment of her own health and welfare . . . pressures mounted to the point that Ms Smith has taken the life of one of those she committed her life to caring for."

Family members described Smith as a devoted grandmother who turned herself inside out to help her loved ones, but Justice Cooke accepted she was suffering from severe emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion.

He said she was "overcome with remorse and suffers from profound grief".

"You have had an extremely difficult life and have been required to carry a heavy burden. In the end the circumstances overwhelmed you."

Justice Cooke agreed a life imprisonment sentence would be manifestly unjust, and instead imposed a total sentence of 12 years in prison, with a non parole period of six years.