Michael Bennett shooting: Hunter Sean Kavanagh failed to identify his target
When a Whangamatā hunter pulled the trigger and accidentally killed a man, it wasn’t the first time he had failed to identify his target properly.
Sean Joseph Paul Kavanagh, 51, shot and killed Paeroa man Michael William Bennett near Murupara in December 2023.
The men were in separate hunting parties and did not know each other.
In 2024, Kavanagh pleaded guilty to careless use of a firearm causing Bennett’s death.
Details of how it happened could not be published at the time, as Kavanagh was denying a separate charge laid after police investigators found evidence of earlier offending.
Kavanagh recently changed his plea to guilty on the charge of reckless discharge of a firearm, which related to a 2021 hunting incident.
Police found a rifle scope video in which Kavanagh shot at a faint thermal image not detailed enough to be definitely an animal.
A police summary of facts relating to both cases has been released to the Rotorua Daily Post.
A shot in the dark
Bennett was a 63-year-old construction business owner who ran for the Hauraki District Council in 2022.
The summary described him as a family man who was a passionate and safe hunter with about 30 years’ hunting experience.
On December 1, he was standing on a bush road when a bullet came out of nowhere and entered his neck.
He collapsed and died almost immediately.
The men were at the Horomanga River catchment, a remote area within Te Urewera, in southeastern Bay of Plenty.
The popular hunting spot is accessible only by four-wheel drive vehicles along a track from State Highway 38, between Murupara and Ruatāhuna.
Kavanagh’s hunting party had a hut near the river, about 12.5km into the bush from the highway.
They also had two tree stands with elevated shooting platforms overlooking the river and river flats either side.
About midnight on December 1, Kavanagh went to their stand, leaving his group at the hut.
He began observing the river flats and surrounds, including the main vehicle access track beside the river.
Kavanagh, who had been hunting for about 12 years, carried a Sako .308 calibre hunting rifle, fitted with a thermal imaging scope.
The scope allowed him to hunt in the dark by detecting heat signatures from deer or other animals.
He also had a thermal imaging monocular for the same purpose.
About a 20-minute walk away, Bennett and his group drove into the area and parked.
Bennett started walking along the vehicle track down the river towards a hut where they planned to stay. His group stayed in the vehicle to nap.
He had his .308 calibre hunting rifle, which had a thermal scope.
In the stand, Kavanagh watched two deer come down the hill and on to the track, then disappear behind scrub.
The summary said it was assumed Bennett spotted those same deer, turning off his headlamp so it would not spook them or interfere with his scope.
Bennett fired a shot from his rifle, assumed to have been at a deer he saw.
Kavanagh heard the shot but assumed it was one of his hunting party.
Not long after, Bennett was standing on the main vehicle track on the open river flats, partially hidden by vegetation. He was 186m from Kavanagh.
Kavanagh saw Bennett’s thermal image through his rifle scope and fired one shot, failing to realise it was a human.
The bullet hit Bennett near the left side of his neck and exited near his right armpit.
Kavanagh radioed his group and learned they had not fired the earlier shot.
It was only then that Kavanagh realised there must be another hunter in the area.
His group met him at the tree stand.
One of them ran to see what Kavanagh had shot and found Bennett’s body.
Emergency services were called at 2.50am.
Kavanagh told police he never saw the victim, only “the glow behind the toitois”.
He assumed he was looking at a deer when he fired.
The 2021 incident
Police got a search warrant to examine the thermal scope on Kavanagh’s rifle.
They also examined his thermal monocular. They found 425 videos of animals being shot on the devices.
The videos identified an occasion when Kavanagh breached Rule 4 of the seven basic Firearms Safety Code rules: “identify your target beyond all doubt”.
On September 12, 2021, at 4.47am, he identified the thermal image of a deer and fired a shot, scaring off the deer.
He chambered another cartridge and briefly spotted the deer again through his scope before the animal ran out of sight.
He scanned for the deer and found a faint thermal image that was not detailed enough to be identified clearly.
He fired at this target, which appeared to run off and was not found.
Kavanagh will be sentenced on November 13.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.