Stevens gets 5-month home detention for accidentally shooting Davies, a cancer survivor, mistaking him for a deer.

Paul William John Stevens, 39, was sentenced to five months of home detention for the 2025 fatal shooting of 21-year-old Jock Davies on Stewart Island, avoiding jail after pleading guilty to careless use of a firearm causing death. Stevens mistook Davies, a cancer survivor, for a deer in dense bush, failing to confirm the target despite knowing others were nearby. The court heard emotional victim impact statements from Davies’ family, describing lasting trauma and grief. Judge Russell Walker cited medium-to-high carelessness, reduced the potential 18-month prison term by eight months for mitigating factors, and ordered Stevens to pay $20,000 in reparation and forfeit his rifle and ammunition.