At least 11 years 4 months jail for cricket bat murder

By David Clarkson

A 25-year-old man has been jailed for life with a non-parole term of 11 years 4 months for the cricket bat murder of the man who loved him and treated him like a son.

Christopher Glenn Gleeson, 25, was sentenced by Justice Christian Whata in the High Court at Christchurch today after admitting the murder charge at a court sitting inside the men’s prison on February 13.

Members of the family of Kenneth John Moore, the 65-year-old man who was bashed to death by Gleeson, expressed their views at an emotionally charged sentencing three months after the killing at Moore’s house in Goldsmith Place, Waltham.

Gleeson, who was a talented cricketer, told police he killed Moore “to make him suffer” and struck him three times on the back of the head after they had argued earlier in the day. He hit the victim again after he fell.

Gleeson did not offer any first aid or call for help and sat in a chair for half an hour while Moore lay bleeding from the ear and mouth. Moore was still lying dead at the house when Gleeson played cricket the next day.

Moore’s sister, Sue Carswell, told the court it had been agonising to tell her large family that he was dead and that he had been killed by Gleeson, someone to whom he had given love and loyalty and supported for more than 20 years.

She told Gleeson that out of compassion, Moore had “genuinely wanted to be a father to you”.

Gleeson had been warmly welcomed into the family. She told the court: “In killing Ken I strongly feel he committed the ultimate act of betrayal of a person who nurtured and encouraged him in the way a good father should.”

Moore’s brothers told of the immense damage Gleeson had caused in the family. One recalled seeing family video tape of Gleeson joining in a game of backyard cricket with Kenneth Moore. They told of Gleeson referring to the victim as “Dad”.

Moore was passionate about cricket, and the family was upset that his life had been taken by a cricket bat. Another game of backyard cricket was one of the last family activities he attended.

His brother, David Moore, told the court: “Even a game of cricket brings out feeling of disgust.”

Kenneth Moore’s son Marcus told Gleeson that he had feelings of “great anger and hatred towards you”.

Prosecutor Chris Lange said the crown sought more than the minimum non-parole term of 10 years because of the callousness of the murder and conduct afterwards in not seeking help for the victim, and the premeditation in returning to the house with the bat.

Defence counsel Craig Ruane said Gleeson had no explanation for the killing. Gleeson said he had “zoned out and there was nothing going on in his head”. There was no medical or psychological explanation and he had behaved in a way that was out of character and for which there was no precedent in his history.

“Life seems to have come unstuck in the months before this,” Ruane explained.

An earlier court sitting imposed a six month jail term on Gleeson for thefts from the supermarket where he had been working, and for driving charges and breaches of community work sentences.

Justice Whata said Gleeson had said afterwards that he had been angry with the way Moore had treated him over the last year or so. Gleeson had been caught up in the relationship difficulties between Moore and his mother. Moore had given him his first cricket bat at the age of two.

He noted Gleeson had lost his supermarket job for stealing last year, and that his relationship of seven-and-a-half years had broken up last year. On the morning of the killing, Moore had accused him of stealing his bank card and asked him to leave.

The judge acknowledged the brave manner in which family members had made their victim impact statements to the court.

“Without doubt this was a brutal one,” said Justice Whata. “I have no doubt that you knew how to use a cricket bat with telling and shocking effect.”

He jailed Gleeson for life and imposed a non-parole term of 11 years 4 months and read him a first-strike warning under the Government’s new system of tougher penalties for repeat violent offenders.