Vincent Skeen was on bail when he killed Luke Tipene

  • 25/09/2016
Luke Tipene (Supplied)
Luke Tipene (Supplied)

By Rewa Harriman

Vincent Skeen was known to police and on bail when he bottled 17-year-old Luke Tipene to death in October 2014, The Hui has revealed.

TV3's Maori current affairs show has also obtained a police statement by a witness - who wasn't called during the trial - saying Skeen had threatened to bottle the witness earlier that same year.

Skeen, 18, fatally stabbed rising league star Mr Tipene in the neck with a broken beer bottle outside a party in the Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn.

Vincent Skeen was on bail when he killed Luke Tipene

Luke Tipene (Supplied)

In 2015, Skeen's first murder trial ended in a hung jury. Two months ago Skeen went on trial again - this time the jury found him not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.

In sentencing, Justice Mary Peters said a report from corrections stated that Skeen had no history of violent offending. She added that his actions seemed completely out of character. 

Skeen was sentenced to five years, two months in prison.

Vincent Skeen was on bail when he killed Luke Tipene

Vincent Skeen in court (Newshub.)

Mr Tipene’s mother, Terry Wilson, is outraged that just four weeks after Skeen's sentencing, he was up for parole on Friday. Ms Wilson gave a statement via video link to the Parole Board in her continued quest for justice for her son.

She and her family are still trying to come to terms with their loss. She says she feels let down by the legal system.

Ms Wilson says she would have dealt with her son throwing a punch at the party, but was never given a chance.

"That has been taken out of my hands - that night Vincent Skeen became the judge, jury and executioner."

"I believed the legal system was there to help me and the family and my whole revelation out of this is, it's not," she says. "I don't call it the justice system any more - I call it the legal system because there was no justice for me, my family or my son."

The Hui.