Wed, 25 Nov 2009 9:08p.m.
Wendy Rowe clutches a photo of her late father, John
Wendy Rowe's past two birthdays have been obliterated by her father's horrendous death.
On November 25 last year she learned he had been murdered in his bed.
Today, on her 50th birthday, she was in the public gallery of the High Court at Rotorua to hear guilty verdicts against the two teenagers charged with murdering him.
They were first cousins Courtney Patricia Churchward, 18, and Lori-Lea Waiora Te Wini, 15. John Rowe, who was 78, lived over the fence from Te Wini's family.
Te Wini, who was 14 at the time of the murder, is believed to be the second youngest female killer in New Zealand's history after Renee Kara O'Brien, also 14, was convicted of murder for a hammer attack that killed Kenneth Pigott near New Plymouth, in March 2002.
Ms Rowe's father, a retired Opotiki College maths teacher, was battered to death by the pair who broke into his house to steal money and valuables so they could buy drugs.
Ms Rowe, a sonographer, and her brother Patrick Rowe, a self-employed maintenance man and gardener, said the past year had been distressing, compounded by sitting through a trial in which the evidence had been so graphic.
Both greeted the guilty verdicts with relief but said that was tempered by the knowledge their father's death should never have happened.
"He was living quietly, not annoying anyone, he was just a wonderful man living out his last years," Ms Rowe said
Ms Rowe said the 4-1/2 hours the jury deliberated were an anxious time.
"We were terrified of hearing what we didn't want to hear; that they had been found not guilty. We knew whatever the verdicts were, we would have to live with them."
Mr Rowe said the guilty verdicts had not changed anything. They had still lost their father and a lot of unanswered questions remained for them to grapple with.
The evidence heard during the trial was "abhorrent," he said.
"Our feelings towards those girls is not printable but we do feel for their families."
Despite this, he and his sister still had great faith in Opotiki.
"The core people there are still good people. We have had a lot of support from them."
Their father had moved to Opotiki for the lifestyle it offered and would have hated the publicity the trial generated.
Ms Rowe, who had nursed a framed photograph of her father throughout much of the trial, said the evidence had been devastating to listen to.
"We were warned but we didn't know the horror of it would be to that extent."
The worst part had been the graphic scientific and pathology evidence which had focused on the extent of the wounds their father suffered when he was battered about the head and face by the stick-wielding teenagers.
She and her brother felt they had to be in court because they owed it to their father whose death had been a needless act.
Ms Rowe's partner, Simon Gilmore, an Auckland fire evacuation consultant, said the trial had highlighted the need for discipline and self-discipline within families and young people. "We have just got to crack down on this youth crime."
Ms Rowe agreed. "We have got to get people off the streets and learn some respect for people, especially older people who have given to society - paid their rates".
Mr Rowe senior had come to New Zealand from Devon in the UK 40 or so years ago for a better life.
"Look how it ended for him," Ms Rowe said.
Before turning to teaching so he could indulge in his love of statistics and figures, he had been a civil engineer on the Tongariro Power Scheme and borough engineer at Dargaville.
The family said they would be present in court when the teenagers are sentenced by Justice Geoffrey Venning on December 18.
The officer in charge of the case, Detective Inspector Rob Jones, the manager of crime services for the Bay of Plenty, said Mr Rowe's killing had been a horrible tragedy, not only for his family, but the families to the two girls and the girls themselves.
"But it has shown we have a justice system and that it is in fact fair and on this occasion delivered a guilty verdict to both the accused."
He declined to comment further until after sentencing and the appeal timeframe that followed.
NZPA
