Inmate gets four more years for attack on cellmate

A Rimutaka Prison inmate who stabbed a fellow cellmate because he scared a stray cat was today sentenced to four years' jail.

Gary Lawrence McKinley was nearing the end of his prison term, after serving more than 20 years of a murder life sentence, when he attacked cellmate Peter Biddle for scaring the feral cat that McKinley had befriended.

On Boxing Day last year, when Biddle was watching Coronation Street, McKinley stabbed him twice in the neck and once in the chest with a 12cm kitchen knife.

McKinley pleaded guilty in Upper Hutt District Court in June to grievous bodily harm.

He had told a prison manager: "I would do anything to protect the cat, it's all I've got".

The two men were prisoners in the self-care unit used to prepare long-term inmates for release.

McKinley was originally jailed in 1987 for the rape and murder of 23-year-old New Plymouth jogger Wendy Snowdon.

A non-parole period of two years was imposed in the High Court today.