Harris was driving a Ford Falcon station wagon on near Pahiatua, on the south-eastern North Island of New Zealand, when his vehicle crossed into the other lane, colliding head-on with an oncoming vehicle, at 11.30pm. Cheyenne Ihaka, 16, was killed in a car crash near Eketahuna. His body was moved into the driver's seat to make it appear as if he caused the crash. Credit:Fairfax NZ Sixteen-year-old Cheyenne Ihaka, a passenger in Harris' car, was killed. Harris moved Cheyenne's body into the driver's seat, and told police he had been asleep in the back seat at the time of the crash. Sheree Painter of Pahiatua, the driver of the other vehicle, was seriously injured.

Harris was not breath tested at the scene, despite drinking alcohol earlier in the evening, because police believed he was a passenger. It was only after further investigation that Harris' deception was discovered. Judge Gerard Lynch gave Harris three months' imprisonment for the careless driving causing death charge - the maximum possible - saying the carelessness "could not get any worse". The car's brakes were worn to the point of being steel on steel, Harris had boasted about overheating it after "skidding it up", and it was already extensively damaged immediately before he took it for the fatal drive, the judge said. The rest of the prison sentence came from the perverting the course of justice charge.

A spokesman for Cheyenne's family, Jake Johnson, said they were not happy with the sentence. "Three months for a life does not really seem enough. That's three months for killing someone. "Maybe the justice system needs to look at it." The judge also made his thoughts known about the maximum sentence, saying it may be time for it to be reviewed. During sentencing, a victim impact statement was read on behalf of Cheyenne's mother, Jaunita Snowdon.

She said Cheyenne had been the man around the house since his father had left, but was also "a mother's boy". He had been buried "under a shadow", when people still believed he had been driving the car, she said. Harris, who had gone to school with Cheyenne, was like a member of the family. "Norman lied to my face ... and told me he had moved Cheyenne to do CPR," Snowdon said. "He has betrayed the whole family."

Defence lawyer Fergus Steedman said Harris sometimes found it hard to sleep at night. He had moved Cheyenne's body within a few minutes of the crash, which would have been traumatic for everyone involved. Traditional and social media soon began reporting Cheyenne was driving, which meant Harris would have needed "great courage" to correct the record. "We now know he did not have that at the time." Harris had only driven a car once since the crash, and was now "terrified" of driving, Steedman said.

The judge said Harris could apply to convert his prison sentence to home detention if a suitable property became available. stuff.co.nz