Life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 10 years is the presumptive sentence for murder in New Zealand except in circumstances where it would be manifestly unjust.
80-year-old John Salter's case is one of those circumstances
His 78-year-old wife Jean had mild Alzheimer’s Disease for about a year before her death and had begun losing things and forgetting numbers.
It was only when a staff member from Metlifecare's Bayswater Village in Mt Maunganui, Tauranga, on New Zealand's North Island, approached Salter about his wife’s “dangerous wandering behaviour” that he became concerned, as it was implied that she may have needed to be put into an Alzheimer’s unit.
Facing the rest of his life without her was “unbearable”, Salter’s lawyer, Tony Rickard-Simms told the court, and they then began discussing a suicide pact.
“His desire was that they should be together forever,” Rickard-Simms told the High Court.
On the morning of October 8 last year, Salter took a necktie he had hidden under a couch pillow and wrapped it around her throat. He failed in his attempt to end his own life soon after.
Justice Francis Cooke found there was a suicide pact between the couple and Salter was not someone who needed to be given the ordinary minimum non-parole period, stating that “would go too far”.
“No purpose is served for you to be given a minimum non-parole period.”
Salter was jailed for four years.
