{"id":111325,"date":"2025-10-31T21:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T21:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/111325\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T21:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T21:39:07","slug":"opotiki-man-bonny-temple-avoids-jail-after-killing-neighbour-wayne-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/111325\/","title":{"rendered":"\u014cp\u014dtiki man Bonny Temple avoids jail after killing neighbour Wayne Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Temple was later found guilty by a Rotorua jury of manslaughter and was sentenced this week in the High Court<\/a> at Hamilton.<\/p>\n

\u2018Good men can do bad things\u2019<\/p>\n

Beach\u2019s brother and mother both described the impact Temple\u2019s actions had had on them.<\/p>\n

In his victim impact statement, Jason Beach said he was angry his 54-year-old brother\u2019s life had suddenly been cut short.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep remembering Bonny\u2019s words saying that he was a good man during the court case.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe might be.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut good men can do bad things.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a good man didn\u2019t stop you from killing my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason said his brother \u201cwas not a well man\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was not a bad man or a good man, but a sick man, but Bonny took away any chance of his life improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his anger, Jason said, he was now keen to move on, with Wayne\u2019s memory forever stilled in his heart.<\/p>\n

However, his mother, Mairi, in her statement said that while she bore no malice toward Temple or his family, \u201cI cannot forgive him for what he has done\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was a sort of rugby kick\u2019<\/p>\n

Before reading the events of the fateful day, Justice Michael Robinson revealed some relevant background of the relationship between wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n

For many years, the Beach brothers lived next door to Temple\u2019s mother-in-law in \u014cp\u014dtiki.<\/p>\n

Wayne Beach had a history of mental illness, and often \u201cbehaved in ways that created difficulties between the neighbours\u201d, which included him regularly shouting at them, including swearing.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, Temple\u2019s mother-in-law would move into a front room with the TV turned up so that she couldn\u2019t hear Beach.<\/p>\n

In September 2023, Temple and his wife moved into his mother-in-law\u2019s house while the roof of their house was being fixed.<\/p>\n

On September 21, his mother-in-law was taken to Whakat\u0101ne Hospital.<\/p>\n

After work, he stopped in at her house, but she wasn\u2019t home, so he carried on to his house.<\/p>\n

He spied Beach walking along the road and pulled over to speak to him.<\/p>\n

Temple told Beach his mother-in-law was sick and he wanted Beach\u2019s behaviour to stop.<\/p>\n

It was Temple\u2019s evidence that Beach told him to \u201cf*** off\u201d and that he could do whatever he wanted.<\/p>\n

\"\u014cp\u014dtiki\u014cp\u014dtiki man Bonny Anthony Temple. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n

It was then that Beach struck Temple with his grocery bag and punched him in the jaw.<\/p>\n

Temple then punched Beach twice in the head, sending him to the ground, before kicking him twice in the chest and again in the head with his steel cap boots.<\/p>\n

A witness described Temple\u2019s kick as \u201ca sort of rugby kick\u201d.<\/p>\n

Temple walked away, and said that as he drove off, he saw Beach get up and walk away.<\/p>\n

Beach\u2019s brother testified that when he got home, he was distressed and had a swollen eye.<\/p>\n

He rang the police and said Wayne\u2019s breathing had become laboured and shallow. Police took him to a medical centre, but his condition deteriorated.<\/p>\n

He died the next day.<\/p>\n

An autopsy showed six rib fractures along with chest and face bruising.<\/p>\n

However, the report revealed for the first time that Beach was also suffering from \u201csignificant artery and heart disease\u201d, but his cause of death was complications of blunt force chest trauma.<\/p>\n

Beach\u2019s brain failed from insufficient oxygenated blood to the brain, which was caused by chest trauma that Temple inflicted; however, it was also contributed to by the pre-existing and significant coronary and artery disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Beach\u2019s underlying heart disease meant that even before the assault, his ability to pump blood around the body was significantly compromised,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Beach was at risk of dying from natural causes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s a lack of genuine remorse here\u2019<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Hannah Speight said the attack was one involving multiple blows to the head and multiple kicks, using steel cap boots to both sides of the deceased\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

She disagreed that there was any provocation on the victim\u2019s behalf, labelling that a \u201cmischaracterisation\u201d. <\/p>\n

While Temple qualified for a previous good character discount, he should get none for remorse, because he had turned down a restorative justice conference.<\/p>\n

A lot of his comments in his remorse letter were also \u201cself-serving\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere just is a lack of genuine remorse expressed here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2018He\u2019s a man of few words\u2019<\/p>\n

Defence counsel Martin Hine said his client and his wh\u0101nau were grateful for the compassion of the Beach wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n

As for remorse, it was evident at trial that his client and the victim\u2019s family met outside court, \u201cwhere expressions of remorse were given and accepted\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor his part, Mr Temple is a man of few words,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has struggled with the impact of what he has caused.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis remorse letter is erudite, it\u2019s heartfelt, and it\u2019s sincere, and it expresses the remorse of a man who continues to struggle with the enormous loss that he has caused to Mr Beach\u2019s wh\u0101nau.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was that difficulty, together with his struggle to contain his grief and emotion about what had occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a man who lacks empathy or insight; this is a man almost overwhelmed because of the empathy and insight that he possesses in relation to what he … has caused.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The circumstances of this case are highly unusual\u2019<\/p>\n

Justice Robinson accepted that Temple, who works in the kiwifruit industry, didn\u2019t intend to cause Beach grievous bodily harm that day, but it was also clear the jury didn\u2019t accept that he was acting in self-defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unclear whether that\u2019s because you were never acting in self-defence or because even if you were, your assault on Mr Beach was excessive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He agreed there was a degree of provocation, and Beach\u2019s \u201clong history\u201d of shouting abuse was also relevant.<\/p>\n

Beach also had pre-existing conditions which contributed to this death.<\/p>\n

The judge took a starting point of three and a half years before applying various discounts totalling 43%, taking into account Temple\u2019s 20 letters of support and the contributions he\u2019d made to his community.<\/p>\n

After getting down to 24 months\u2019 jail, he noted Temple\u2019s risk of reoffending was low, and the wishes of the victim\u2019s family, who didn\u2019t want to see him jailed.<\/p>\n

Labelling the circumstances of the case as \u201chighly unusual\u201d, he converted the sentence to 12 months\u2019 home detention.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Temple was later found guilty by a Rotorua jury of manslaughter and was sentenced this week in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,33524,7972,79676,1334,11156,5158,6377,111,43,139,69,669,79677,3542],"class_list":["post-111325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-avoids","tag-beach","tag-bonny","tag-jail","tag-killing","tag-man","tag-neighbour","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ptiki","tag-temple","tag-wayne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}