A former pro boxer wants thugs whose coward-punches prove fatal to be charged with murder, not manslaughter.
Also known as a king-hit, a coward-punch is when someone punches from behind, the victim completely unaware they're about to be hit.
Last week a 17-year-old was sentenced to 22 months' jail for the manslaughter of a 40-year-old man, who died after being blindsided in the early hours of a Saturday morning in Invercargill, in April.
Mike Angove, who used to take punches for a living, wants killer cowards to face the full wrath of the law.
"That is as close to murder as you can get," Mr Angove told Paul Henry on Tuesday morning.
"You've got to link the consequences with what's going on...the same we did with drink driving, the same that we've done with other issues surrounding domestic violence."
There's a big difference between getting punched while in a fight, and getting hit from behind, he says.
"You don't see it coming so your body doesn't have a chance to prepare for it. Your body immediately relaxes, then you smack into the pavement, the concrete, the sidewalk.
"Your brain and your skull isn't that tough. It doesn't take a lot to cause brain swelling."
As well as boxing, Mr Angove spent "20-odd" years working as a pub bouncer, and witnessed his fair share of coward-punches.
"There is nothing worse than hearing the absolute crack - it's like a gunshot - of a skull hitting the pavement."
Mr Angove blames the rise of coward-punches in the last few years on the instant notoriety and fame granted by the internet.
"There's the YouTube generation or Facebook generation where you can go and look it up online - you see people running up to unsuspecting people on the street and hitting them, cold-cocking them. It's an awful phenomenon."
Just telling young people not to do it doesn't work, he says - they need to be shown what happens to the victims.
Newshub.
