The former white supremacist who is serving two life prison sentences for killing a gay Westport man and a Korean backpacker has had his appeal against his 21-year non-parole jail term turned down. Hayden McKenzie, 31,and a fellow 'Forth Reich' member strangled and drowned 54-year-old gay man James Bamborough after a party in Westport in October 1999. He was found guilty of the murder in 2005. McKenzie also murdered Korean backpacker Jae [jay] Kim on the West Coast in 2003, and later pleaded guilty. Back in January at McKenzie's sentencing in the High Court in Wellington, Justice Simon France said both killings were 'hate crimes', as the victims were killed because of their ethnicity or sexuality. McKenzie, who has already spent four years in jail, had lodged an appeal saying another 21 years was "manifestly excessive", reports the NZPA. The Court of Appeal judgment rejected the appeal, saying: "Each of these killings was callous, wanton and despicable. The total effective sentence was no more than was needed to reflect the total culpability."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 6th May 2009 - 12:59pm