Jayden Kahi has been sentenced to two years in prison for the murder of Indian tourist Mewa Singh

Sentencing of Jayden Kahi in the Christchurch High Court, October 22, 2024.
Photo: Things / Chris Skelton

• A man who killed a tourist he wrongly believed was trying to kidnap his son near a Christchurch park has been jailed for two years.
• Sixty-year-old Mewa Singh, a visitor from India, died two days after he was attacked by Jayden Kahi outside Linwood Park in April 2023.
• Singh’s son said his life was turned upside down after his father’s death and he will always miss him.

A man who killed a tourist he wrongly believed was trying to kidnap his son near a Christchurch park has been jailed for two years.

Sixty-year-old Mewa Singh, a visitor from India, died two days after he was attacked by a stranger outside Linwood Park in April 2023.

Jayden Kahi pleaded guilty to Singh’s manslaughter and was sentenced before a packed public gallery in the Christchurch High Court this morning.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Singh’s son said he was still struggling with the loss of his father.

“The defendant has turned his lives upside down. Wherever we go and whatever we do, we will always miss our father,” he said.

There were shouts of “love you” from the public gallery as Kahi was led away after his conviction.

According to the summary of facts, Singh had been in New Zealand just four months before his death.

It said that in April 2023, Kahi left his seven-year-old son alone at Linwood Park to teach him a lesson after refusing to go home with him.

Photo: Things / Chris Skelton

When Kahi returned, he saw an unknown man, later identified as Singh, holding his son’s hand at a bus stop and became “enraged”.

Kahi shouted “that’s my damn son,” told the man to take his hands off his son and pushed the man, the summary said.

The summary said Kahi then drove his son back to his ex-partner’s house, where his son told him the man was “trying to take him to Dad’s car”.

Kahi returned to Linwood Park and confronted Singh, accusing him of kidnapping his son.

He shoved Singh and delivered a “haymaker-like blow” to his jaw, and Singh fell and hit his head on the pavement.

The summary said Singh suffered a fractured skull and internal bleeding and died two days later at Christchurch Hospital.

In sentencing Kahi, Crown prosecutor Christina Hallaway said Kahi’s offending had left Singh’s family “never-ending”.

harm,” and that they would grieve for the rest of their lives.

“The victim had done nothing to provoke the confrontation. “There is no indication that the victim did anything other than try to help the defendant’s son,” she said.

Kahi’s attorney, Anselm Williams, said his client was deeply remorseful.

“He has accepted that his actions caused the death of an individual,” he said.

Williams said it was not a premeditated attack and that Kahi acted impulsively.

Kahi had been on electronic bail for 16 months and had been attending to mental health treatment and a violence prevention program during that time, Williams said.

Judge Melanie Harland told Kahi there was no doubt he was the aggressor in this situation.

“There is nothing at all to indicate that he (Singh) did anything to his son, apart from showing him kindness. The person was just trying to help a little boy, your son, who was left in the park by you,” she said. .

“Your actions reveal a man who was quick to anger that day.”

However, she accepted that Kahi had been “candid” with police and others about what he had done.

Judge Harland sentenced Kahi to two years in prison.