An Indian student who was jailed for life for killing a pregnant woman in April last year has had his appeal for reducing his sentence denied.
Akash who was 24 at the time, was convicted and sentenced in October last year by the High Court in New Zealand's capital Auckland, after he pleaded guilty to the murder of 22-year-old Gurpreet Kaur whom he stabbed 29 times.
The Court of Appeal rejected Akash’s claims that the court failed to take into account his early guilty plea and demonstration of remorse, reports.
The three-judge bench that heard his appeal, held that the slow admission of guilt and his lack of remorse did not qualify for a reduction in sentence, and that the minimum 17-year sentence was not “manifestly unjust."
The Court of Appeal held that Akash was under the influence of methamphetamine when his victim, Gurpreet Kaur told him she wanted to end their 12-month long relationship and that the baby she was carrying was not his.
Crown prosecutor Gareth Kayes told the High court during the trial that Akash had bought methamphetamine on the morning he committed the murder.
The court was also told that he had been taking medication to deal with psychotic episodes in India.
When Kaur’s body was recovered in April 2016, it had nine stab wounds and twenty cuts.
“You stabbed her with a knife you had in the car in the scalp, face, neck, chest and abdomen and cut her jugular. You stabbed her five times in the abdomen, the deepest to her mid abdomen,” Crown prosecutor Gareth Kayes said.
Medical evidence suggested Kaur was 7 to 10 weeks pregnant when she was murdered.
The trial judge while sentencing him had described the murder as cruel, brutal and callous.
"You knew she was pregnant and stabbed her most deeply and often in [the] abdomen," the judge said.
Akash must spend a minimum sentence of 17 years and will be deported to India after completion of his jail term.
