A teenager who stabbed a young Northland man to death has been sentenced to life in prison.
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The boy, who has interim name suppression, was aged 14 when he killed 22-year-old Bram Willems in January last year - stabbing him seven times in the chest and abdomen, and another six times around the lower back, with a knife.
He was found guilty of murder at a jury trial last year.
Justice Timothy Brewer told the High Court at Whangārei today that the boy's anger exploded on a night out socialising and drinking, and he attacked Willems near the Roadrunner Tavern between Ōpua and Paihia.
"I do not find that you attacked Mr Willems with the intention of killing him. I think you just exploded with anger and started stabbing. However, I am sure that you had a conscious appreciation that what you were doing might very well kill Mr Willems and you carried on anyway."
He imposed a minimum non-parole period of 10 years.
The Willems family told the court the murder left them also with a "life sentence".
Willems' mother Christy Lacroix said she felt "deep sadness every day, every minute".
"You broke us," she told the boy in the dock, who remained silent, still and looking down throughout.
She paused multiple times to cry, and said the murder was the "worst thing" the young teen could have done to her, and there was "no excuse".
"The pain and trauma you have caused us is more than you can imagine."
She said her son had sought friendship from the boy but it ended with "betrayal, pain and dying alone".
Willems' brother Rob's statement was read by a police staff member.
He said the murder caused "every negative emotion".
"Inconsolable sadness, helplessness, hopelessness, indescribable anger, and deep regret to name a few.
"What he went through personified my worst fear," his statement said.
"I can't even begin to imagine the magnitude of the fear and uncertainty that he felt, or the thoughts that might have been going through his mind, as he lay there bleeding and suffering, in his final moments. That thought haunts me daily."
He said his parents had endured "uncontrollable agony".
"When I woke up in the middle of the night, on the seventh of January 2021, I thought I heard my mother laughing hysterically, louder, and with more intensity than I'd ever heard from anyone. As you can imagine, I just needed to get up and revel with her in her joy.
"So I got up with a big smile on my face and hurried over to her. To my extreme, unfortunate surprise, I saw a police officer standing there. I remember it as clear as day as if it was yesterday.
"And my father looked at me with such indescribable pain in his eyes. And he said, 'Bram has been murdered' in a tone that carried such agony that it has tattooed in my brain, with that loud and hyperventilating sound that I spoke of earlier, that I perceived as ecstatic laughter in the background. It turned out to be a mother who had just lost her child."
Justice Brewer is yet to issue a decision, ruling whether the killer's name will be permanently suppressed.
