Where's the justice? | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Shaun Miller and Linda Murphy say they are gutted that a manslaughter charge has been dropped against Daniel George Ewen, who yesterday admitted supplying methadone to their 17-year-old son last October.
Ewen, 38, unemployed, of Masterton, pleaded guilty at the High Court in Wellington to one charge of supplying a Class B controlled drug. The Crown withdrew a manslaughter charge against Ewen.
The move drew a bitter reaction from Aaron Miller's parents, who are struggling to get on with their lives in the wake of the tragedy.
''I'm gutted,'' Ms Murphy said. ''It shouldn't have happened. ''It's stuffed our lives. I don't know how Aaron's brother copes.'' Mr Miller said his son's death had affected his livelihood. He now had trouble taking on fencing and docking jobs as it reminded him of working with Aaron, whom he described as a practical, hands-on boy with a passion for motorbikes.
Although it was scant consolation, Mr Miller said there was some comfort in the fact Aaron had died peacefully in his sleep, rather than violently.
''He would have just put his head on the pillow and that would have been it,'' he said.
Ewen's lawyer Ken Daniels said the Crown had dropped the manslaughter charge because there were ''substantial difficulties in establishing that the supply of methadone had actually caused the death of Aaron Miller. The Crown now accept that the unlawful act of supplying methadone may not have caused his death.'' Ewen, a long-term drug addict, had been on the methadone programme and had a small amount of the drug at his home to use when he could not travel to a pharmacy for his regular dose.
Aaron, a friend of Ewen's son, was at Ewen's Masterton home the night before he died after taking a combination of methadone and benzodiazepine.
Ewen had previously denied supplying methadone to the teenager after a December 15 search warrant turned up illegal medicine, an unlicensed firearm and insecurely stored methadone.
Aaron, who had only one kidney, ''died in his girlfriend's arms as he slept'' on October 18, 2009. Post-mortem toxicology tests found a fatal level of methadone in his blood and traces of benzodiazepine _ a psychoactive anti-anxiety and insomnia drug known to increase the likelihood of death when taken with methadone.
The combination of the drugs can depress reflexes, slowing breathing to the point where brain function stops.
When spoken to by police, Ewen confessed that he had not secured his methadone, instead keeping the small bottle on his bedroom dressing table.
Ewen conceded to police that the methadone taken by the teenager could have been his but had said he did not supply it to him.
He then told police about his benzodiazepine addiction but denied giving pills to the teenager on the night of his death.
During the search of Ewen's house, police found a .22 rifle with a silencer hidden under his bed and 12 rounds of .22 ammunition in a wall cabinet in his bedroom.
He told police he was looking after the unlicensed rifle for a friend but declined to give the friend's name.
Police also found 42 tablets of Nortiptyline, a prescription medicine used to aid sleep. Ewen admitted that he had bought them off a friend. He was remanded on bail to be sentenced on the supply charge on September 17.
He faces further summary charges, including having insecure storage of a prescription medicine, unlawful possession of a firearm, and possession of an unlicensed firearm. Hearings on these charges will follow the sentencing.