I'm Adam Kearns. Four years ago I was put in prison for sending threatening text messages to my mother. I'm innocent, and this is my story. CRACKLY ELECTRONIC MUSIC BUILDS MUSIC PEAKS, FADES I was taken into the police station. I was questioned over the texts that had supposedly been sent by myself. HINGES WHINE They told me they were opposing my bail because I was a threat to the society and threat to public. DOORS CLANG HEAVILY I just turned around and said to them, 'It's not me. I haven't done this.' Their response to me was, you know, 'That's what they all say.' LOCK CLICKS When I first met Adam, he just seemed like a` a normal young guy. He didn't seem out of the ordinary until he started talking about what had happened to him. TAPE REWINDS CAR HORN BEEPS I started flatting at the age of 15. BOYS WHOOP I was out cruising with a few friends, just around town in the cars, and pulled into Burger King. Was at a slash-Countdown on Moorhouse, and I met this young girl, Kasey. How are ya? Um, she came up and asked me for a lighter. He was a good-looking bloke. Treated me well. Wanted to go out for the night, so we thought, 'Awesome.' We exchanged cell phone numbers and started texting each other. Then one thing led to another. We ended up together. Very funny. Our relationship was great to begin with. It was awesome ` just as any other normal, healthy relationship you'd think would be. I found out I fell pregnant about a week before my 17th birthday, and so, being so young, we didn't think we wanted to keep the baby. I've always wanted a family and children but not at the time. We did talk about it over and over, and we decided that we were gonna keep the baby and try be a family. I didn't have a choice in it. He loved to drive and drift, and, of course, you're not allowed to drift in Christchurch areas, and so, of course, he got into a lot of trouble. It was always speed, speed, speed. Just get to be by myself ` my own space, my head's clear, nothing in front of me but the road, you know? Just no limits, no expectations, no nothing. ROCK MUSIC Uh, I've always grown up with no respect for the police, no respect for authority. In the end, I found out he was quite aggro. He had a bit of a violence behind him. And that came out towards other people. He had a lot of convictions behind him, and it was always down to drug, alcohol and violence. A lot of them was to do with car convictions and stealing. And so being so young and in such a mentally abusive relationship it was at the time, my relationship got so bad that I had to get away. TAPE REWINDS Kasey went running to my mum, sort of, you know, knowing that I didn't speak to my mum. Helen made her way in after I'd had the baby, and I thought it was just nice, curiosity, wanting to be there for her grandchild. My mum took Kasey and herself and got protection orders out on me. So, a protection order was issued against Adam in February 2010, and it was an ex-girlfriend, and another protected person was his mother, Helen Milner. So Adam couldn't contact his ex or his mother. Was pretty, uh` pretty tough at times, yeah. TAPE REWINDS LOW MUSIC PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES I got a whole heap of texts ` abusive, threatening texts ` saying that my baby was gonna get taken and that if I had taken him, he would be dead, and everything led up to` from them texts to me coming from Adam, so therefore we thought it was Adam. PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES This is what the text messages said. At 9.18 ` PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES At 7.36 same day ` PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES At 6.20 ` The way they were put out, stating 'our son' and the threatening` the threatening ways behind it made it out to be that they were from Adam, and it gave me no doubt that they were from Adam. PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES It freaked me out so much. I didn't wanna go anywhere. I was so scared that something was going to happen. TENSE MUSIC So I took it to the police. I made an allegation. I told them that this is what was done and I wanted something done about it. It was Adam's mother, Helen Milner, that encouraged his ex to make that complaint. The allegation was that Adam breached the protection order by text messaging his ex and his mother 10 times between the 26th of March 2010 and the 30th of March 2010, and those text messages were allegedly abusive and threatening. (SNIFFS) Helen Milner also made a statement to the police. You made a complaint to the, um` to the police in regards to, um, your son Adam Francis Murray Kearns. Mm-hm. Mm-hm. Is that correct? Mm-hm. Is that correct? Yes. She thought Adam was extremely aggressive. I've always feared for Kasey's safety. Yeah. I've always feared for Kasey's safety. I think I told you on the phone that day, when they first started going out, I told her to get out of it. She said, 'He won't stop until he's killed or seriously harmed someone. 'He'll go out of the way to hurt me and others, including financially.' She said he has serious issues, he doesn't take responsibility for his actions, and she said that she definitely feared for her safety. I'm just a big fuck-up all round. Adam is so unpredictable. He` He` He can be so violent, and the mood swings just from one second to the next. When Helen Milner finished her formal written statement with the police, she signed it as being true and correct to the best of her knowledge and belief. That's what I mean. I've been shafted the whole way fucking through it. < Stop the video now. TENSE MUSIC Police came to my house I was living at with a few of my friends. They knocked on the door and told me I was under arrest for breach of a protection order, and, um I basically just turned around and said to them, 'It's not me. I haven't done this,' and I was taken down to the Central South Police Station. The allegation is that you have breached your protection order. They sat me down, interrogated me, read through all the text messages that had supposedly been sent. Who do you know with the cell phone number 021 0273 5275? 021 027` I` I wouldn't have a clue. Why don't we ring it? At 19.28, um, on the 25th of the third ` I haven't even text Kasey. I don't even have her new number. I don't even know what her new number is. I don't even know my mum's number. I don't even know any of this shit. At 9.18 ` I have not spoken to my mother in at least seven months. I haven't spoken to Kasey in the last three to four months, and I don't wanna speak to either of them. These are allegations of domestic violence, and unfortunately in NZ, domestic violence can lead to significant incidents, so they would've had that in the back of their minds. So why would I go throw my whole life away by sending some stupid text messages? Seriously. I've got nothing to gain by sending any of those text messages. On the 10th of April, Adam was arrested by the police and charged with two charges of breaching the protection order ` one relating to his ex and one relating to his mum, Helen. My bail was opposed on the grounds that` on the basis that I was a dangerous person, I was a, you know, risk to society, a risk to them. They s-stated in their statements that, um, they were fearful of their safety and their lives and that I'd potentially kill them. HINGES WHINE The judge stood there and gave me a grilling on the fact that, you know, I need to wake up to life and stop being abusive and threatening and that no one should threaten their mother and the mother of their child and all the rest of it, and I was sent into custody. DOOR SLAMS Adam's bail was refused, and he was held in custody from the 10th of April 2010 to the 27th of April 2010 at Christchurch Men's Prison. It was my first time ever being in prison. CLANKING The feeling of not knowing what lay ahead. Um, just the fact that I hadn't done it, but everything looked as if I had done it because of how the texts were worded. It was as simple as a text message on a piece of paper, and it was all pinned on me. DOOR CLANGS DOOR CLANGS HEAVILY DOOR CLANGS I was in Paparoa, Christchurch Men's Prison. I just expressed my innocence daily. No one listened to me. Everyone had the same motto of, 'That's what they all say.' You know, 'You do the time you`' 'You do the crime; you do the time.' A lot of my friends didn't know where I'd gone. A lot of people to this day still tell me they didn't even know that I was in prison at the time. Adam wrote a letter t-to his grandmother w-when he was in` in Paparoa. And, uh, explained it as he'd been, uh, put in prison because of this, uh, c-cell phone and all the rest of it, but he said it wasn't him. It was r` a really, uh... uh, uh, really a sad l-l` s` uh, letter that was` He was really, uh, sorry for himself and, you know, how his` how his life was going and all that sort of thing. CARS REV IN DISTANCE My flatmates at the time, um, they were of the understanding that I'd done something. They weren't told, when I was arrested, why I was under arrest. I couldn't tell them. I couldn't contact them. CARS REV IN DISTANCE And, you know, in that time they ended up, you know, selling my car ` my pride and joy ` and all my belongings to pay my rent. I don't hold any grudges for what they done. They had to do it. Oh, I think it really knocked him. I really do. Because he was in with a lot of, uh, you know, older` older men and that sort of thing. I do` I think it was a real` a real w-wake-up call to him. There was a significant impact. He lost a job. He hadn't had one for a while. It was very hard to get a job at that stage. He lost a flat. It was a flat that he lived in that was actually providing him with a bit of stability in his life, and when you talk to Adam, he'd been through a rough time and he felt like things were on an even keel, and this really mucked things up. Yeah. It got to the point after a while where I started thinking more and more in depth of whether I'd actually sent them or not myself, you know? Got to the point where I questioned, you know, my own innocence, I guess. I started running through, like, 'Did I send them when I was drunk? Did I`?' You know? 'Did I send`? Did I really send them? 'Because I can't remember sending them, but it's all looking like I did,' you know? (INHALES DEEPLY) Someone had just taken my freedom away from me. OMINOUS MUSIC It was my mum that had done it. And knowing it was my mum that had done it, and I knew that the whole time. I said that from the minute I was arrested, and I still say it to this day that she did it. The story seemed impossible. It just didn't seem like it could be true that a mother would lie and have her s` own son locked up for 17 days. It just sounded like a script out of the movies, not like something that would happen in real life. I see exactly where you're coming from. If I was in your position, why would my mum send those texts? What has she got to gain from it? Nothing, except the fact that she knows it's gonna reflect on me, and she's done that the whole fucking time. PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES Do you know how many 021 SIM cards she's bought in her time to stir shit? PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES The reason why I'm putting these allegations to you is because a complaint has been made,... Adam, in regards to, um, you texting her, and these text messages imply that, um, you've sent them. PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES The content of these text messages, uh` It certainly implies that it's you. You go to my mum's house, bring up her credit card records. I guarantee you that SIM card belongs to my mum. Yeah, I got pretty shitty at times in the interview, yeah. That's my mum saying that shit. I'm not that stupid. It's shit. I've just, like, always been looked at as the boy that cries wolf. Just never been believed. Always been the shit-stirrer, the` the liar. Is there anything else you wanna say? Is there anything else you wanna say? Yeah. Now's your chance. This isn't fair. That's all I wanna say. This is not fair, and I will get the evidence to prove that my mum is the sort of person to go get a phone, put a SIM card in it and send text messages. I knew what she was up to. I knew what she was up to. She is the one with the issues. She's not right in the head. Put it that way, so, yeah. TAPE REWINDS SOMBRE PIANO MUSIC The day she put me into Child Youth care was the day I realised she never really gave a shit about me. My dad left when I was about 2 years old, and the whole way through our childhood, Mum manipulated us to think my dad was in jail or in a different country. He's always been in Christchurch, but, um, yeah, my mum always told us that he was somewhere different. I just feel like Mum never had time for me or my brother ` me especially, though, yeah. She always told` told me, growing up, that I was a mistake and I was unwanted and all the rest of it. She'd say nasty stuff to me like I was unplanned, not wanted. I was always scared of home. I always hated home. Never happy at home. And I'd always, yeah, run away from home, run to my grandma's house. She was so good to the boys. Well, I mean, she was just like their mother, really. She was more of a mother to the` to Adam and Greg than what, uh, Helen was. Helen didn't seem to be able to handle them. It was poor mothering, really, that was the cause of it. Kids, we're gonna learn some new words today ` nice, big ones. I'll write the first one down. I want you to tell me... I had a, um,...(INHALES DEEPLY) primary school teacher, Dianne Burke, that real took a liking to me, and I took a liking to her. Anybody else got a nice description? She's always been there to support me, like, when it comes to, you know, ring` She rang Child, Youth and Family, and she was always there to protect us as kids. I remember in the transition to school that the head teacher of the kindergarten came to see me, and she had concerns about Adam. In her words, I can remember that she said he was the most emotionally deprived child that she had ever come across in her professional career. They were lovely children. They were well dressed, well cared for ` in a physical sense ` but very withdrawn and shy, and their little eyes would be, you know, always sussing out the territory. They were just too good. They weren't normal children. CHILDREN CHATTER INDISTINCTLY Helen would turn up to the classroom to pick up the children and would regularly and often talk, um, to sort of try and build herself up. She was quite narcissistic, and... it was so abnormal. The teachers thought she was a` a nutter ` CHILDREN CHATTER INDISTINCTLY even one teacher said a nymphomaniac. The worry with such quiet, withdrawn, 'goody-goody' boys was this constant change of partners in the house, the regularity of, um, concerns expressed to the school over the, uh, verbal abuse and out-of-control behaviour of the mother, um, Helen Milner. TENSE MUSIC My mum would always just ring the police on me whenever I wasn't doing what she'd tell me to do. MUSIC CONTINUES the earliest encounter I can remember was` I would've been about 6. What the hell do you think you're doing?! And the police came round for me pulling some plants out the garden, and my mum had them put me in a police cell to try put the` you know, scare me a wee bit. SOMBRE PIANO MUSIC Pretty shit, really, eh, you know, for your own mum to be able to just call the police that easily and not take any responsibility for how she was treating me. DOOR SLAMS I felt right from the word go that these boys were being... really harmed and would need help in the future. Well, when I was 12, I'd` I came home from school. It was athletics day, and I wanted to have a drink of water before I went out and done my paper round. Not till you've finished your bloody paper round! And my mum told me to fuck off and do my paper round, and I refused until I had a drink, and she rang Child, Youth and Family and told them to take me away. Anne tried to stop, uh, you know, Helen doing it. She even suggested that, uh, Adam come with her, and, uh` But, no, Helen wouldn't have anything to do with that. She just said, 'No. He's, uh` 'He's done his dash this time.' Basically, I was just packed into a car with my belongings and taken away to Papanui, which is on the complete other side of town. I was a really good student. I went right through till about year six as an A-grade student, always ahead of the class, always a year above or whatever, and then as soon as I got put into a Child Youth home, things just changed. Oh, well, Adam just went downhill. It, uh` You know, it wasn't till` till he'd been in CYF's care for, oh, quite a few weeks that, uh, Anne and I were out at a, uh` having a meal at a restaurant, and, uh, the` one of the caregivers, uh, that had previously been at the home, uh, was` told us that, uh` that Adam was` used to, uh, cry himself to sleep every night. Things just went downhill. I was, yeah, getting taken to pol` uh, school by the police most days of the week when I was in intermediate. I was treated like complete and utter shit in Child Youth care and, um, yeah, just did not feel cared about one bit. Helen went to, uh` to pick him up f-from the` from the home to bring him home for Christmas. They'd agreed that he could go home for Christmas, and, oh, there was an argument, apparently he started, and` and, uh, so the` the, uh` the caregiver said, 'Well, no. He's not going.' SOMBRE PIANO MUSIC 'You're not` You're not taking him home.' CLATTERING She said she was coming to pick me up on one Christmas Day, and she never showed up, so... Poor kid was devastated. Yes, all goes back to the` to, uh, being put into CYFs. It all goes back to there. I-If his mother had been sensible and` and even let his` let Anne take him and` and be with her for a` for a couple or three months, it` th-this would never have happened ` never have happened. OMINOUS MUSIC My relationship with my stepdad when he came into the` you know, the relationship with my mum was good. I-I liked Phil. I liked Phil a lot. MAN: Whore! MAN: Whore! Do you wanna be run over, mate? As time went on, our` our relationship ` me and Phil ` got manipulated by my mum. She used to cause a lot of trouble between us and spin a lot of shit to us and a whole lot of lies that would cause me to have, you know, bad feelings against Phil, bad thoughts against him as a person. KASEY: Well, when I first met Adam, I met Helen. She was lovely. She was just like an old grandma that would do anything to help anyone, pretty much, but she` it was covered by the sheet. She pulled the sheet over everyone's eyes. She turned into a witch. She was evil. I'll fucking run you over! There's a suppression order! Get out! And then she'd turn around and talk about knocking my stepdad off. Can I run him over? She had talked about it for years on end. It was daily routine that she was wanting to kill Phil. It was just a daily thing that we all just put over the top, because it was something we pretty much just laughed off. You come on my property,... You come on my property,... Take it easy. You come on my property,... Take it easy. ...and you've had it. She offered us $5000 to get a hitman to kill Phil. We don't know anyone like that, and we wouldn't be in a` such a position to do anything like that or even think about that. I didn't believe her or think she'd ever do anything like that. It was always just, to me, anger speaking more than the truth. JARRING, OMINOUS MUSIC And then, um, one day she actually, you know` I caught her out trying to do it. MUSIC CONTINUES I got up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water, walked out to the kitchen, and she was standing at the bench, putting some powder into some capsules. MUSIC INTENSIFIES From that day forth, I'd never really speak to her again. She was fucked in the head, and I didn't wanna know her. Adam rung me, and he was in tears, saying that he had just seen his mother crush up some tablets into clear capsules in the kitchen. Everyone always thought it was just a bluff, that she was just angry Helen, crazy Helen and all the rest. She'd spoken about it for so long, to put it into action was something we never thought she would do ever. UNEASY MUSIC My mum killed my stepdad. She had overdosed him on Phenergan, which is an antihistamine, which is what she'd talked about using several times and all the rest of it, and then, um, yeah, I heard and believe she smothered him with a pillow afterwards. SOMBRE PIANO MUSIC Anne knew` well, thought all along that that's what Helen would do. The` But` Helen had been talking about it for so` so long that she was, you know` she wanted to get rid of him. I couldn't live with myself, you know, for Phil's family's sake. I seen the effect it had on everyone ` you know, Phil's side of the family ` the effect it had on me ` just the knowing and the` the conscience that I hadn't done anything about it, and I hadn't told anyone, you know? So I ended up going to the police station and making a statement against her. So I done what I thought was right. There was Adam and his partner, uh, Anne a` Anne and myself and, uh, uh, Anne's son Craig. The` The detective just took down, uh, the details from` from Adam and his partner and from` from Anne. They sort of shrugged it off, really. They said, 'Well, we'll get someone to be in touch with you when we've had a look over it.' And I walked out of the police station that day and was never contacted again. And we'd tried to tell them, and nothing got done about it. They didn't even believe us. Me and Kasey broke up. It affected both Adam and me in a big way, because we had known of a murder that no one was taking us seriously about, so therefore we're part of that. I knew what she was capable of, manipulative-wise. She got wind that I'd been to the police, so I knew that if I made a statement that she'd either a) come after me and set me up, which she did, or b) attempt to kill me as well. At this stage, I'll consult with my supervisor, and then we'll discuss what we're gonna do about it. I want something to be done. I want something to be done. We wanna make some more enquiries. I want something to be done. We wanna make some more enquiries. I want something to be done. One of the major changes that happened between the 10th of April and the 27th of April was that the police started to investigate this. There's emails on my email address of what she wanted sent to her, to her ex-husband and to her` her, uh, husband's son. That's how low she stoops. The arresting officer realised that there was something a bit fishy going on when he had read the email. READS: 'To Phil, don't let that bitch near Ben. Stop nagging him about his hair. 'He'll have it cut if he wants to. His weight ` he doesn't want to be fat like your bitch wife.' I also asked if I could have internet access to an email that my mum had sent me previous to that ` a couple of years ` asking me to cause some trouble between her husband's ex-partner and vice versa. I had that on my email still saved, because I never trusted my mum. PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES I always knew what she was like. PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES Bear with me for a moment. So he had to, um, go find evidence. This is all fucking bullshit. One thing I did pick up on while I was reading the text messages is they had cell towers on the` you know, the, um, report sheet with the text messages that were sent, some of the cell towers being in Sydenham and some in Halswell, which are both the two areas that my mum and my ex-partner live in, which I explained to the police at the time of the interview as well. When you've got a cell phone, it has to find a tower to relay its messages, and that can give an` a rough estimate of a location of someone, and Helen Milner lived in Halswell, and these text messages were polling off the Halswell tower. What the police also found out was where the phone was bought. It was bought at The Warehouse in Barrington, and two minutes after it was bought, Helen Milner walked out of that store. The second text message after credit was loaded was a text message from that phone saying 'test' to Helen Milner's phone. PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES In effect, what she'd done is sent a message to herself to see that the cell phone was working. (SNIFFS, SOBS) It's not in my nature to lie to people, because I have been lied to and hurt so many times that I try not to do that to people for that reason, because I don't wanna do that to them. (INHALES DEEPLY) But I have been` And as I said, my solicitor and my doctor will both tell you... (SNIFFS) that I don't cope. From all the police evidence and all of the things that have been disclosed, Helen Milner was consistently denying having any involvement in sending those text messages. But you're saying that I've purchased that SIM card. If I did, I honestly, honestly don't remember. As I said, I don't remember what I was doing yesterday, what I was doing last week. I know that sounds stupid, but the way my life is at the moment` Graham would tell you. My solicitor would tell you I am teetering on the very edge at the moment again. Um, the police jobsheet indicates that Helen Milner is upset and states she has medical problems induced by stress and that she needs medical attention immediately. I'm no longer allowed to see my grandson because of my health. She requested an ambulance. I don't even know half the time what day of the week it is. (EXHALES) READS: 'Milner, who is sitting in a seat, bends over and has her hands around her mouth area. 'She then vomits/dry retching where a very small amount of bile is produced.' (BREATHES SHAKILY) I am a complete and utter wreck. Watching the video, a reasonable person could assume that she was feigning illness and that she was trying to avoid having to front up to her actions. POLICEMAN: We` We've investigated this cell phone that you received these text messages from. Mm-hm. Mm-hm. And we have, um,... had a look and found out where it was purchased from. had a look and found out where it was purchased from. Mm-hm. It was purchased from Ba` The Warehouse, Barrington. It was purchased from Ba` The Warehouse, Barrington. Mm-hm. As a result of all the further enquiries and Adam's denial, the police discovered that Helen Milner had sent all of these texts to Adam's ex and to herself. I honestly do not remember having done it. Here is a... Dated 25th of March at 4.38pm. Um... A Vodafone Supa Prepay card was sold for 29.95 and paid with $40 cash. (INHALES DEEPLY) I` As I say, I honestly don't remember having done that ` definitely not. So you don't`? You didn't do that? So you don't`? You didn't do that? I don't remember doing it. It was her that had sent the threatening and abusive text messages, not Adam at all. Here's video surveillance of the person purchasing that card. Confirm that's you? Yep. That looks like me. OK. The video surveillance shows me buying it. I have no recollection. My life is such that at the moment I get out of bed in the mornings, I have my breakfast, I sit on my arse, I have my lunch, I sit on my arse, I have tea, I sit on my arse, because I've got nothing. I've got nothing else in my life. I don't know what I'm doing most days. Helen Milner was arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice. And that was them finally believing me was when they realised that she wasn't the person she had made herself out to be. Your son has been held in custody for 16 days because an opposition to bail was made on your complaint. What`? What do you have to say about that? Well, if that is true, then maybe I should be locked up. REFLECTIVE PIANO MUSIC Adam's case was brought back to court, and the charges were withdrawn against Adam, and Helen Milner was arrested and charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice on the 26th of April 2010. I was disgusted when I found out. The police came to me and told me that that was Helen, and it wasn't Adam and that he had been held in custody for wrongdoings, and I felt more disgusted that I had allowed her around me and my son and that she could go and do something like that just to keep him out of the picture. We went out to Paparoa, and I brought him home, but, uh, he` he said, you know, 'I don't` never want to go back there again.' You look at it from just Adam's perspective, he wanted to yell to the world, 'Hey, I was innocent. She did it,' but he couldn't. He was` He was precluded from doing so. He couldn't publicly talk about it, and that was for good reason. Helen Milner was awaiting a trial, and it would've prejudiced her fair trial rights, which are absolute, if he'd been able to publicly say it. So, this whole time I've been dragged along throughout it all until she was charged for everything she's ever done, basically. Helen Milner was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, and she didn't plead guilty straight away. The first time that she admitted that she sent those text messages was some` was over a year later when she pleaded guilty in court. Perverting the course of justice is a really serious offence. The justice system relies on people to tell the truth to the police and in court. Helen Milner lied not only to the police, but she swore a statement, knowing that statement was going to be used in court, which was untrue as well. On the 9th of August 2012, Helen Milner was sentenced to imprisonment for two years and eight months. In, uh, sentencing Helen Milner, Judge Paul Keller said,... 'It is difficult to understand or speculate as to your motives for this offending. 'One might think that they were designed 'to adversely affect your son's prospect of contact with his own son. 'That is almost too perverse to contemplate, 'but I can't imagine what other motivation you would have had.' LAWYER: If your Honour pleases, uh, I propose, sir, that we proceed this morning by Your Honour hearing victim impact statements. READS: 'Uh, my full name is Adam Francis Kearns. I'm 23 years old and live in Christchurch. 'I am a student. Phil Nisbet is my stepfather. 'Ever since I first heard Phil was dead, I knew that my mother had killed him. 'I was worried about what she might do to me when she found out. 'As it was, she got me arrested for a crime I didn't commit, and I spent 16 days in jail. 'Helen has never taken responsibility for anything she's done. 'It's always been someone else's problem or fault and never hers. 'I've got a lot of anger and distrust of people because of Helen. 'I feel like she has judged me and put me down all my life, and I know deep down that I'm a good person.' Helen Eli-Elizabeth Milner, at trial a jury found you guilty of murdering your husband, Philip James Nisbet. In my view, it could hardly be a clearer case of calculated pre-planning and premeditation in the case which is before me. For the murder of Philip Nisbet, Miss Milner, you are sentenced to life imprisonment. You are to serve a minimum of 17 years' imprisonment. Stand down, please. ELECTRONIC MUSIC She had painted herself as a grieving widow, and I was just this bad, horrible person that was accusing her of murdering my stepdad, and I was an attention-seeker, basically. We'd like to thank everyone for their support through this. We're just finally pleased to have, uh, justice for our` for our brother. So he can finally now rest in peace, because it's over. She will never walk the streets of NZ again. She's serving time for what she's done. That's the main thing. Justice has been brought to Phil's family ` for Lee-Anne, Ben, Zack, all the rest of them, and that's what it, you know, boils down to at the end of the day. It's for them, not for me. What I think he's focusing is his vindication and being able to say to the whole world, 'It wasn't me. She's admitted it, and she's being punished for it, and I've been compensated.' We're suing Helen Milner for $60,000 for malicious prosecution. It's to recover damages, or to compensate Adam for the time that he's spent in` in jail and for the humiliation, the distress and the loss of other things. I ended up, uh, selling the engine and gearbox out of my car to, yeah, sort court costs and lawyer costs and stuff like that to take civil action against my mum for some, you know, reparation of what I lost while I was in prison. When I look at Adam, I see someone that is still hurting from being wronged, and if he can put this behind him, then he can move on, and he can be what he wants to be. I wanna get into welding, get my welding ticket and basically just build and drift cars, really. Just cars are a part of my life ` a big part of my life. It's the one thing I feel like I'm... (INHALES DEEPLY) happy and doing something productive. Adam's such a mixed up young man. I don't really know. He` What he wants is a` is` is a` a job, even if it's, uh, with a pick and a shovel and get this anger that he's got in his` you know, i-in himself, get it out. I have a lot of fears for Adam. I feel he's terribly, terribly at risk. I think somebody needs to come out of the woodwork somewhere to... help him deal or come to terms and find a way forward for him to have a good life, a good relationship. I know it would be a long process. Um, I've spent the last four and a half years dealing with my stepdad's murder when no one's ta- come to the party to rescue me for what she's done to me, and this is, yeah, finally my chance to tell it how it is. Captions by Imogen Staines Edited by Pippa Jefferies. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015