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Victim's Stories Murder Victims Stories From Aaliyah Morrissey's parents Brad and Hoana From Daniel Fleming's mother Sylvia From Brian Brown, father of Natasha Brown From Kristine Johnston mother of Shannon From Danny Alkema son of Kate Alkema John/ Val Hargreaves From Bevan and Dawn Smith parents of Kylie Ann Smith Rita Croskery mother of Michael Choy Ann McKenzie widow of Noel McKenzie From Tai Hobson, husband of Mary Hobson From Doug Blakie, father of Lisa Blakie From Ida Hawkins, mother of Colleen Burrows In Our Courts Drink Drive Victims Stories Assault and Sexual assault

From John and Val Hargreaves, parents of Jennie Hargreaves

When Shane Hoko murdered our beloved daughter Jennie he literally drained the life out of me at the same time.

When you are with others you have to appear to be bright and cheerful and look as though you are "getting over it" because everyone wants you to, but inside you are an empty husk, grieving constantly.

People say you can forget pain, but this pain is not a physical one, it is a mental one. Like a cancer it spreads through your mind ensuring you think of what he did to her every day. I long for that peace which our family had before Mr Hoko impacted on our lives in the most horrendous way possible.

I have visited every emotion these past 19 months and the overwhelming one is of deep sorrow. We now can't look forward to the happy celebrations of life with Jennie, share her dreams, birthdays, marriage, and any children she may have had. I feel the pain of my husband and son as we try to bring back the joy of Christmas.

As a Christian I try not to hate Mr Hoko, but he had been allowed on parole and that is something, which is hard to forgive.

We had never had dealings with the Police before, and the professionalism and compassion shown helped us enormously. The Crown Solicitors office were in contact with us near the trial times and they were very supportive too.

After the sentencing we hoped there would not be an appeal, but yet again we had to face more trauma. We listened to the Appeal judges and just knew Mr Hoko would have his parole sentence reduced. He got to celebrate that good news the week of Jennies 19th birthday.

Why does the Justice system call a sentence "life" when there is no such thing?

The families are the ones enduring the life sentence not the murderer.

We joined Sensible Sentencing to give support to the proposal "That premeditated or aggravated murder receives a life without parole sentence.

We ask Mr Goff with his power to show how he represents the majority of New Zealanders who want to see justice, not injustice, being done.

John and Val Hargreaves.

Election message Audio file (MP3 format) (1.2 Mb) from John Hargreaves