Christchurch man Joseph McGirr will spend his first night in prison tonight, after being sentenced to 20 months in jail for attempting to cover up the death of a promising young polo player at his house more than two years ago.
American polo player Lauren Biddle, 22, died from cardiac arrest, likely caused by a drug overdose, while she was at his home in October 2018.
McGirr was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice at his trial last year, but acquitted of supplying drugs.
After Biddle was found unresponsive in the spa pool, 39-year-old McGirr cleaned up, then hid her clothes and belongings by burying them.
He showed police where they were the following day.
The judge told McGirr, who was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet at the time of his offending, that he had little regard for sentences and had the attitude that the rules didn’t apply to him.
McGirr also breached his bail conditions just two weeks ago.
The judge gave him leave to apply for home detention, but only to a residential rehabilitation facility.
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