A man who was sentenced to seven years in prison for kissing a woman in the street under New Zealand’s controversial “three strikes” law has been awarded $450,000 in compensation by the government.
The man, Daniel Fitzgerald, who has significant mental health issues, was charged with indecent assault after he approached and kissed a stranger in a Wellington street. He had committed two similar crimes, and so was sentenced under New Zealand’s recently repealed laws, which compelled the judge to give a maximum sentence – seven years – for the offence, despite mitigating factors, unless it was “manifestly unjust” to do so.
