The friend and flatmate of teen killer Jeremy McLaughlin who helped him try and get away with the burglary and arson of murder victim Jade Bayliss' house has been sentenced to 200 hours of community work.
Jolon Erin Sweeney, 41, helped McLaughlin dump some things he'd taken out of the 13-year-old schoolgirl's Christchurch home after McLaughlin had strangled her with a piece of cord, stuffing socks in her mouth and dousing her house in petrol and setting it ablaze.
Jade was found dead by firefighters on November 10, 2011.
Sweeney was standing trial on charges of being an accessory after the fact of the burglary and arson, and attempting to obstruct the course of justice, alongside McLaughlin's murder trial, when late in the trial the Crown dropped the obstructing the course of justice charge.
Sweeney then pleaded guilty to helping McLaughlin try to get away with the burglary and arson.
Today, Sweeney said he felt under pressure to help McLaughlin, who he knew had killed before.
McLaughlin returned to the Christchurch flat he shared with Sweeney after he'd killed Jade and set fire to her house. He'd already pawned some of the things he'd stolen, but was left with some Playstation games and family documents, including passports.
Knowing that they were extremely incriminating, he knew he had to dump them, Justice Graham Panckhurst said.
McLaughlin roped in Sweeney to help him dump the evidence, and together they drove to McLeans Island, and offloaded the stolen items in long grass.
They were both arrested by police later that day.
Initially, Sweeney stuck to the story that McLaughlin had come up with, and they were put in the same police cell.
But four days later, Sweeney changed his tale, and told police what really happened.
Justice Panckhurst stressed today that Sweeney did not know Jade had been killed, until police had interviewed him later that day.
"It seems to me your choice of flatmate was, to a certain extent, explains your predicament today," said Justice Panckhurst.
The judge accepted that Sweeney had been "fearful" of McLaughlin.
He noted it was with some irony that he'd tried to help his former friend avoid detection of the burglary and arson, but four days later told police the true story.
Justice Panckhurst said Sweeney had no previous convictions, had a positive pre-sentenced report which highlighted him as being assessed as a low risk of reoffending.
"Extremely," Sweeney said from the dock today.
After he was sentenced a relieved Sweeney, who now lives in Auckland, was glad it was all over.
"I never thought I would end up here in court," he told APNZ.
"I'm not a bad person. The last two years have been hell, with this hanging over me. I was just to get on with my life."
A jury of seven women and five men in the High Court at Christchurch took just two hours to find McLaughlin, 35, guilty of murdering his ex-partner's daughter.
He was also due to be sentenced today but it has been delayed until August 22 while Justice Panckhurst seeks further reports. His appearance was excused from court today.
Jade's father Gary Bayliss was in court today, along with police officers involved in the harrowing case.
He made no comment outside court.
The jury in McLaughlin's trial weren't allowed to know McLaughlin's criminal history.
In Australia in 1995, Mclaughlin bashed 14-year-old Phillip Vidot with a cricket bat, while a mate ran him over in a car.
Vidot died, and Mclaughlin was sentenced to 12 years in jail for manslaughter but after just four years he was deported to his native New Zealand in 2001.
