A teenager who fatally stabbed a stranger to death at an Auckland bus station in 2023 has been sentenced to three years in prison

The now 18-year-old's been granted permanent name suppression - in part due to trauma he suffered from a 'prison napalm' attack at a youth justice facility after the death, that left him partially blind.

At his murder trial last November, a jury instead found him guilty of the manslaughter of 24-year-old Epapara Poutapu at Albany bus station.

During sentencing today, Justice Graham Lang accepted his self-defence argument and acquittal for murder, but says the situation didn't need to end in tragedy.