Hamilton District Court<\/a> recently on multiple charges, including aggravated burglary, injuring with intent to injure, assault with a weapon, and threatening to kill.<\/p>\n\u2018I\u2019ve lost trust in humanity\u2019<\/p>\n
In her victim impact statement, read by the judge, the woman explained how she now found it difficult to go out in public, even for simple tasks like going for a walk or getting the groceries.<\/p>\n
She was suffering mental health issues at the time, and the attack had worsened them.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said at the time she wrote this, that she had lost trust in humanity and played over many times in her head what could have happened if police hadn\u2019t found her in time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer concerns are, of course, entirely understandable and justified,\u201d Judge Stephen Clark said.<\/p>\n
\u2018People are after me\u2019<\/p>\n
Te Huia broke into her house via a rear bathroom window, by breaking the fly screen covering the window frame.<\/p>\n
As the victim sat at her computer, Te Huia, who was sweating and out of breath, walked into the room.<\/p>\n
Spotting her, he panicked and walked out again without saying anything.<\/p>\n
The victim followed him and found him crouching down low, looking out the lounge curtains, stating that people were after him and acting delusional.<\/p>\n
She asked him several times to get out of the house, but he refused. <\/p>\n
He then asked for a glass of water.<\/p>\n
Thinking it might get him out, she got him one, and he drank it.<\/p>\n
He then started moving toward the rear door of the house, but suddenly became aggressive and punched her multiple times to the head and face.<\/p>\n
The court heard she tried, unsuccessfully, to defend herself, as Te Huia grabbed her head and slammed his knee into her head and face.<\/p>\n
He grabbed the woman by her long hair and dragged her across the floor back to the kitchen, ripping hair from her scalp.<\/p>\n
He then picked up a pair of scissors and placed the tip at the back of her head, as she struggled to defend herself.<\/p>\n
As he continued assaulting her, he told her he was going to kill her, and muttered sentences to himself.<\/p>\n
Police arrived and could hear someone screaming for help. They smashed their way in through the lounge glass door.<\/p>\n
The victim suffered multiple bruising, swelling, and cuts to her face and head, neck, forearm, and a concussion.<\/p>\n
\u2018He\u2019s not taken up his opportunities\u2019<\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Leo Lai said although it was obvious Te Huia had a drug addiction for quite some time, it didn\u2019t appear he was doing anything about it.<\/p>\n
He urged the judge to restrict any discount for addiction and rehabilitative prospects.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has been given opportunities to address his issues throughout many, many years and he has simply not done so. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of any prospect of rehabilitation, this is someone who has demonstrated he is not willing to take the steps required to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018He\u2019s ashamed of the harm he\u2019s caused\u2019<\/p>\n
Te Huia\u2019s counsel Gerard Walsh took issue with Lai\u2019s comments that his client was \u201cbeyond the pale of redemption\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, the contention for him is very much \u2018no\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it was difficult for his client to get onto any decent courses in prison while on remand, but he had started down that path. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems that for this man, there\u2019s an appreciation that what saw him offend in what is obviously a horrible fashion was fuelled by addiction and that\u2019s something he\u2019s prepared to jump on top of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Te Huia was also remorseful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a great sense of shame for the harm he has caused this person and, in turn for him, for the harm that he causes the people around him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Clark noted Te Huia had ingested half a gram of meth the night before the attack. <\/p>\n
While it wasn\u2019t a mitigating factor, it did help explain Te Huia\u2019s actions, he said.<\/p>\n
Te Huia also had 68 previous convictions, including 13 for burglary.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d experienced violence and drugs as a youngster, while his father was a gang member, and he got involved in the Mongrel Mob at a young age.<\/p>\n
From a six-year starting point, Judge Clark jailed Te Huia for three years, seven months, and two weeks. He also ordered a firearms protection order.<\/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":"The attack was only stopped by police, who smashed their way through her glass lounge door to save…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[89,1558,38501,3447,1351,1345,85916,296,53733,111,43,139,69,90,8690,61841,28767,1299,1354],"class_list":["post-122655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-attack","tag-been","tag-breaks","tag-gaming","tag-had","tag-home","tag-huia","tag-into","tag-joseph","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-te","tag-unleashes","tag-vicious","tag-who","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122655","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=122655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}