“There is no way to measure the emotional harm survivors and affected families have endured and will continue to endure," Judge Evangelos Thomas said during the sentencing in a Wellington court. "Reparation in a case like this can be no more than token recognition of that harm.”

“No review of prevailing reparation levels conducted by any other court contemplates emotional harm of the scale and nature that is present in this case. Greater awards are appropriate.” 

Previously, a three-month, judge-only trial against 13 groups had seen six plead guilty and six other having charges against them dismissed. The charges were brought by regulators and carried fines as a maximum penalty.

The final remaining defendant in the trial was Whakaari Management Ltd. which was found guilty on one charge in October last year.

At Friday's sentencing hearing, Thomas was particularly scathing towards the shareholders of WML, the holding company for the island’s owners: Andrew, James and Peter Buttle, who he said had “appeared to have profited handsomely” from tours to the island, despite the company claiming no assets or a bank account to hold funds. 

“This case, like many others, sadly reveals how simply corporate structures can be used to thwart meaningful responses to safety breaches,” Judge Thomas said. "There may be no commercial basis for doing so, but many would argue there is an inescapable moral one.” 

"We wait to see what the Buttles will do. The world is watching."

The specific reparation sums awarded to victims and the families of those who died was suppressed for publication by the court. 

The last remaining defendant, New Zealand scientific agency GNS Science, the government agency that monitors volcanic activity, was fined for failing to have processes to share risk assessments with its contracted helicopter pilots. 

No GNS staff were on the island at the time of the eruption and the agency was not ordered to make any reparations.