Jail term for unprovoked attack

The victim of an unprovoked assault who was beaten by two men still has scars on his face six months later, a District Court Judge says.

One of the attackers, Jarrod Paul Moore, 22, of Blenheim, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment yesterday after admitting injuring a man with intent to injure after the attack outside a Renwick tavern on July 9.

Moore initially elected trial by jury, but changed his plea and had spent six months in custody.

Judge Richard Russell said sentencing Moore to rehabilitation at a residential treatment centre as well as intensive supervision, as suggested by his lawyer, was not a significant deterrent.

The victim and his wife would feel the lasting consequences of Moore's "mean, nasty, vicious and mindless thuggery", he said.

Judge Russell said Moore and the co-accused, who has elected trial, were drinking at a Renwick tavern when the victim and his wife, who were not known to either men, entered to buy alcohol from the bottle store inside.

The victim walked back out and stood next to a taxi waiting for his wife. As he waited, Moore walked up behind him and punched him in the back of the head with a closed fist, Judge Russell said.

The man dropped to the ground and tried to defend himself, but the co-accused held him down and he was punched about the head several times, he said.

The man's wife told the taxi driver to call the police.

The victim got up and went toward his wife, the two men pushed past her, grabbed him and pushed him into the taxi and then into the garden, he said.

In trying to stop the attack, the man's wife pulled Moore's hair so hard she ripped out a patch of it, Judge Russell said.

The man suffered cuts, abrasions, a concussion and a burst blood vessel in his eye.

In a statement, the man said he had to continuously look over his shoulder for days after the attack because he was nervous. He installed security cameras on his property.

Defence lawyer Philip Watson said a place was available for Moore at Moana House in Dunedin, a residential treatment centre.

Moore's six months in custody gave him "time to take stock" and the residential treatment was an opportunity to break the cycle of offending, he said.

Moana House could treat only people sentenced to community detention, he said.

The Marlborough Express

Last updated 12:00 14/12/2010