‘This is your fault’
Nepe went to the Frankton property on September 8 last year and hid in the victim’s bathroom.
The victim was in her bedroom when she was alerted by her 1-year-old that Nepe was in the house.
She tried to find him and went outside, but couldn’t see him.
However, Nepe stepped into the hallway from the bathroom and confronted her, holding an air pistol.
He pointed it at her before swearing and shouting at her, telling her to “shut the f*** up”.
He demanded her phone while the 1-year-old was in the room and pointed it in her direction at one point.
Fearing for her safety, the woman handed over the phone before going outside where there was a community nurse, whom she had asked for help.
The victim sat in her car, but Nepe then turned his attention to the victim’s flatmate, who was changing her baby’s nappy in her bedroom.
Still armed with the pistol, he pointed it at her, while yelling abuse and demanding her phone, which she gave to him.
Nepe then began walking around the house, telling her not to move.
He spotted the first victim and approached her aggressively, sitting in the back of the car with her.
Nepe pointed the pistol at her while abusing her.
The victim wrestled the pistol off him and handed it to the nurse.
Nepe slapped her across the face with the back of his hand and asked her why she told people he was in the house.
“I could’ve killed people,” he said.
Nepe got out of the car, took security cameras, and fled on an e-bike.
Police found him nearby.
While neither of the victims was injured, they suffered severe emotional harm.
Brown said her client had several family members in court to support him, including his father and sister.
She said he was genuinely remorseful and that was displayed at a restorative justice conference with the victim.
Brown also pushed for a 20% discount for pleas, 15% for his background and rehabilitative prospects, and a further 10% for the impact a jail sentence would have on his children.
He’d already spent 370 days in custody, and if the judge adopted her starting point of three years and three months along with her credits, that would get her client out time served.
Crown prosecutor Matthew Temm said it was a violent home invasion, and although the weapon was later identified as an air pistol, it would still likely have looked real to the victim.
He suggested a starting point of five and a half years, taking into account the planning, premeditation, multiple victims including a child, the weapon and associated violence.
Although a background report highlighted some factors, some were disputed by his own family members.
Judge Tompkins agreed with Temm to an extent, before taking his own starting point of five years’ jail.
He noted that watching Nepe point his weapon at her child “must have been unavoidably terrifying for the first victim”.
The judge said her wrestling the pistol off Nepe was “courageous”.
Judge Tompkins allowed credit for Nepe’spleas, attending restorative justice, background and impact on his children, before jailing Nepe for three years and nine months.
He also granted a protection order and a firearms prohibition order and issued a first-strike warning.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.