HARRY Young said his daughter’s killer should have been jailed for life after he was sentenced to a 17-year jail term.

He had called on the judge to give a life sentence to 22-year-old Lipine Sila, the factory hand who mowed down his daughter and her friend Hannah Rossiter outside a rowdy house party in Christchurch, New Zealand, in May 2007.

Jane’s dad Harry said he was appalled at the courtroom ‘swagger’ adopted by Sila throughout his trial.

And he said Sila, 23, should have received at least a 20-year prison term for the murders of 17-year-old Jane and Hannah, and the fellow party guests who were seriously injured as the result of his driving rampage.

Sila was given a 17-year sentence by Mr Justice Fogarty, at the High Court in Christchurch, even though prosecutors had argued for a much tougher punishment.

Harry said: “I think it should be life meaning life. But the judicial system is very much biased against law and order.”

Earlier he had read a statement out in court describing the emotional turmoil which had ripped his family apart in the wake of Jane’s untimely death.

Mr Justice Fogarty told the court that Parliament set a guideline of 17 years minimum non-parole as part of a life term, in cases where two people had been murdered.

He could not see any reason to reduce the term for being manifestly excessive.

But he did not agree with a call by crown prosecutor Anne Toohey for the term to be increased to 20 years.

He said he had to regard the jury’s verdict as indicating they regarded it as “reckless killing”.

The court had heard that ex-boxer Sila ploughed into Jane and Hannah after he became embroiled in a row at a gathering in suburban Christchurch last May.

He had ‘floored’ his Honda Integra and driven into the crowd outside the party.

Eighty-three witnesses gave evidence in a five- week trial that heard that the 20th birthday party’s numbers had swelled when details were circulated during the week as text messages.

Police estimate about 1,000 people were present when they decided to close it down because so many people were spilling out of the property onto the road. Officers were nearby and about to move in when the incident took place.

A fight had developed on the street where Sila’s brother Benjamin was challenging people to take him on.

He threw a bottle that smashed a parked car’s window before being chased off by a partygoer.

That partygoer then recognised Sila and shoulder-charged him and a fight developed.

Sila was struck on the ear with a bottle, causing a cut which bled but did not need medical treatment.

But prosecutors said the fight was over when Sila got into his car and drove off.

The court heard that Sila “floored” the accelerator and drove into the people ahead along the road, rather than doing a U-turn where the road was clear.

After he hit one group, he did not turn left at a T-junction but careered into another group in front of the party house, on the wrong side of the road, hitting Jane Young and Hannah Rossiter.

Sila then sped away and crashed into two vehicles. He was arrested by police that night.

Victims of Sila’s offending had spoken of his apparent lack of remorse in their statements to the court.

Harry Young told of Sila’s “swagger” into and out of court, which the jury never saw during the trial, and the way he smiled and waved to family and friends.

A close friend of Jane Young’s, who narrowly missed being hit herself as her friend was killed, said: “The fact that he has never accepted responsibility or said he was sorry, has been difficult to cope with.”

But through his lawyers Sila, who stood in the dock for 90 minutes while statements were made by victims of the tragedy, and translated into his native Samoan, did issue an apology.

Defence counsel Pip Hall said: “First and foremost, on behalf of Lipine Sila, I wish to express his extreme remorse and sadness about the damage and devastation his actions have caused to all affected.”

In the probation report, Sila apologises “from the bottom of my heart and feeling sorry and sad”. He says he wishes he had the power to bring them back.

“I know that what will happen to me will not be good, but it is nothing compared to what those girls and their families have gone through.”

Defence lawyers have indicated that there will be no appeal against the judge’s sentence.