Sarah Jayne Curry

Sarah Curry loved softball and riding horses and bikes. She was a bit of a tomboy and her face was often smudged with dirt. On Friday, January 17, 1992, the 8-year-old girl played at a friend's house before their mum saw her off on her way home. But Sarah Curry never made it back to her parents and siblings that night. The last time she was seen alive was at 4.15pm, less than a kilometre from the family home. She was wearing a blue home-knitted jersey, pink trousers and tan Nomad shoes, one of which had a black shoelace. About 1.3m tall, Sarah had brown, shoulder-length hair. The following day, a little after noon, her body was found in pine trees and long grass in reserve land off Bluff Highway in Invercargill. She had been raped and strangled. Peter George Davis, then 44, was later sentenced to preventive detention and life in jail for murder and sexual violation. At the time, Sarah's friends, family, and teachers, spoke of a "loving", "friendly", "bubbly" little girl who was "a bit of a tomboy". Days after she was found, uncle Phil Corcoran said it had taken a couple of days for it to start to hit home that the "affectionate, bubbly, cuddly little girl" was dead. Some of the details of her death had been kept from Sarah's two brothers, aged 12 and 3, and her sister, aged 13, he said. At her funeral, Corcoran spoke of "one of his favourite little nieces". One of Sarah's St Josephs School classmates, Laura Connolly, said Sarah's gentle friendliness and lovely smile brought happiness to their school. Source: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents/81567280/faces-...

The son of the man jailed for raping and murdering Invercargill girl Sarah Curry 19 years ago says he would be better off dead than living with the legacy of his father. The man contacted The Southland Times following publication of a story saying his father, Peter George Davis, 63, will be considered for parole at a hearing in the week beginning May 16. Davis should never be released, the man's son said. However, looking at the provisions for parole it looks unlikely Davis will be released anytime soon. The man's son asked to be known only as Frank because he had been assaulted in the past when his association with the man he calls his "sperm donor" became known. Frank's life is punctuated with his father's abuse and criminal offending and it is all well recorded. It began when Frank was 18 months old and he was found on railway tracks in Awatoto in Napier as his drunken and drugged parents slept nearby. "That would be public record as well as the train driver had to stop and pick me up off the tracks and tried waking the sperm donor and mother up, and the police were called." Frank was removed from their care and sent to Invercargill where he was raised by his grandparents. However, Davis would soon follow him south and begin violent offending that would put him "in and out of jail" and in and out of his life, he said. In 1978, when Frank was 5, Davis would be arrested for the attempted murder of Susan Batt in an Invercargill guest house known as "The Castle". "That was his first attempted murder charge." In 1986, Davis would be arrested again, this time for the rape of a nurse and co-worker of his sister for which he was handed a five-year jail sentence. "I was 13 and watched him get dragged out of the house." Three years later, aged 16 and struggling with the gap left by his absentee father, Frank would launch a criminal career of his own. "I did some stupid things when I was 16. He [Davis] wouldn't accept visitors in jail." Frank did everything he could to get jail time himself. "I assaulted police, stole cars, burglary – I just wanted to get to know him." It was a ploy that worked and a mistake, he said. "He was just an a***hole." Released from corrective training at age 17 and with Davis released from prison early soon after they would again meet – although violently. "Three days after he got out of jail, I was woken up by a steel bar across the back of my head." The experience would set him on a path of violence from the age of 18 to 22, including serving time for a stabbing, he said. It coincided with Davis' worst crime. On January 21, 1992, Davis, then 44, raped 8-year-old Sarah Curry, strangled her and left her body in a reserve on the side of Bluff Rd. Frank says that was the turning point for him, leading to him being victimised for the crimes of his father and attempting to turn his life around. "I went to a lot of non-violence courses." He has kept out of trouble for 16 years, he said. But the demons continue, he has changed his name three times, but cannot escape the sins of his father. "We are tied by blood." He had attempted suicide three times, he said showing scars on his forearms. "Every day I wish I wasn't born. Sometimes I think it would be better to be dead – I feel dead all the time, emotionally, mentally ..." Davis had scarred so many lives he should never be paroled, he said. "The Currys need piece of mind." Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/4919924/Killers-son-better-o...