Wellington - A Hungarian tourist who used a banjo to kill a 69-year-old gay man, whom he claimed had made homosexual advances, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for manslaughter Friday in the Auckland High Court. The judge said that Ferdinand Ambach, 32, a dive master, had committed a "truly cruel and brutal crime" and there was no evidence that the victim, Ronald James Brown, had sexually assaulted him, Radio New Zealand reported.
At Ambach's trial in July, he was said to have beaten the victim with a banjo and rammed the handle down Brown's throat.
A jury cleared Ambach of the more serious charge of murder after he pleaded that Brown provoked him with unwanted advances when he took him back to his apartment after they met at a bar in December 2007.
The court was told that police were called by a neighbour and arrived to find Brown badly injured and Ambach screaming in Hungarian and throwing furniture through an upstairs window. Brown died three days later in hospital.
Ambach told police he could remember only parts of what happened that night, and his attorney said that drinks Brown gave Ambach must have been spiked to account for the "sheer, monstrous rage that took place in that flat."
The judge imposed a minimum non-parole period of eight years, and Ambach will be deported after serving his sentence.
