A Taranaki man's been sentenced to 12 months home detention - for setting fire to a house bus in Manaia 20 years ago, killing a man inside,
A Taranaki man's been sentenced to 12 months home detention - for setting fire to a house bus in Manaia 20 years ago, killing a man inside,
21 May 2025
Open Justice reports 38-year-old Frederick Matene King pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Michael Slade at the High Court at New Plymouth.
The 27-year-old labourer was sleeping - when a drunk King lit a piece of paper in the bus window in August 2005.
King confessed last June - which factored into his reduced sentence.
The court's accepted he admitted to the fire in 2006 - but it was absent from police records.
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