By Tracy Neal, Open Justice reporter<\/p>\n
An argument over a water tank ended with a man trying to kill his father with an axe.<\/p>\n
Frank John Harris is now serving a three-year, seven-month prison term after he was sentenced in the High Court at Nelson today on a charge of attempted murder.<\/p>\n
A large contingent of family turned up for the hearing involving a case described by the Crown as \u201cunusual from start to finish\u201d.<\/p>\n
That was because of the extreme violence committed by a person with no previous history and who had until then lived a quiet life in\u00a0Golden Bay, prosecutor Abigail Goodison said.<\/p>\n
She said he never believed he would do what he did.<\/p>\n
She said the victim and his wife had demonstrated an \u201cimpressive capacity for forgiveness\u201d after, as shown in the Restorative Justice process.<\/p>\n
Defence lawyer Steven Zindel said it reflected greatly on how tight-knit the family was, and their capacity for mercy.<\/p>\n
Zindel said the \u201ccrazy rupture\u201d which had occurred would hopefully be fully repaired, and that Harris\u2019\u00a0cannabis use\u00a0had been an indirect factor in events.<\/p>\n
Harris\u2019 78-year-old father was sitting in a chair on the back porch area of his\u00a0T\u0101kaka\u00a0home last December when Harris approached wielding a long-handled wood-chopping axe.<\/p>\n
Harris\u2019 stepmother was also injured as she deflected an apparent attempt by Harris to decapitate his father, the\u00a0police summary of facts\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
He lost almost a litre of blood in the attack which also left him with a fractured skull, a broken wrist and tendon damage from a large cut, a deep cut to his right arm and shoulder and chipped bone, a deep cut to his forehead, a broken rib and bruising to his chest.<\/p>\n
He was flown to\u00a0Wellington Hospital\u00a0where he underwent an emergency 11-hour surgery.<\/p>\n
Justice Peter Churchman said in sentencing Harris it was an \u201caberrant incident\u201d by a man who was otherwise a good friend to many, and good employee and well thought of member of the Golden Bay community.<\/p>\n
Justice Churchman said the report by\u00a0Restorative Justice\u00a0was among the most favourable he had ever seen.<\/p>\n
He credited the family\u2019s compassion and ability to manage events with clear communication after what had been a \u201cgrave and traumatic event\u201d.<\/p>\n
Recently separated<\/p>\n
Harris, 31, lived in a cottage on the property owned by his father.<\/p>\n
Police said the property, surrounded by native bush, had multiple dwellings on it in which other family members lived.<\/p>\n
Harris\u2019 small cottage was at the top of the property from where he operated a small business growing and selling microgreens.<\/p>\n
He had recently separated from his partner. The night before the offending on December 14, the pair argued about the purchase of a water tank Harris wanted for the microgreens business.<\/p>\n
By mid-afternoon the next day Harris had set his cottage alight, destroying it, police said.<\/p>\n
Harris then went to the main house where his father and stepmother lived. He picked up a long-handled wood-chopping axe from a nearby workshop and confronted his father, stating: \u201cI am the 7th son of Herbert Harris and I\u2019m here to kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victim\u2019s wife came outside the house when she heard the commotion and heard Harris say he intended to kill the victim.<\/p>\n
She saw Harris move forward and strike his father in the chest with the axe as he sat in a chair.<\/p>\n
As he got up and staggered towards the door where his wife stood, Harris struck him with the axe two or three times more in the upper body.<\/p>\n
Crawled towards wife<\/p>\n
He fell to the ground and was crawling up the steps towards his wife when Harris lifted the axe and swung it in the direction of his father\u2019s head and neck in \u201ca motion consistent with an attempted decapitation\u201d, police said.<\/p>\n
The victim\u2019s wife intervened and the axe hit her elbow, which deflected the intended blow.<\/p>\n
The victim\u2019s eyes closed. Thinking he was dead, his wife yelled to Harris that he had killed him, and he dropped the axe and left.<\/p>\n
Harris then went to see his brother who lived on the property, and told him he had \u201cset his cabin on fire and just killed their father\u201d, and that he wanted to go to the police station.<\/p>\n
The brother found his father receiving first aid from his wife and a friend who was at the property.<\/p>\n
By then, others had noticed the fire. Efforts were made to put it out using fire extinguishers but the fire was well involved, police said.<\/p>\n
Handed himself in<\/p>\n
Harris was found on the main road and driven to the T\u0101kaka Police Station where he handed himself in.<\/p>\n
A note he handed to the police indicated a string of rambling thoughts, ending with: \u201cTold myself to think it through. The weight of the axe and the thud as it hits my old man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris declined to make a statement other than the note he gave to police.<\/p>\n
In March this year he wrote to his father, saying he was sorry that he \u201ccame down the hill and attacked him\u201d, and he was sorry that \u201cin that moment he wanted to kill him\u201d.<\/p>\n
He referred to \u201chaving lost wilful control of his body\u201d and that his \u201cemotional overwhelm had condensed into a violent act\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said at the end of the letter he was grateful his woodchopping practice \u201cdid not equal homicidal prowess\u201d.<\/p>\n
Goodison said the Crown acknowledged the victims\u2019 views but crime was a public wrong, and victims\u2019 views could not overwhelm the outcome.<\/p>\n
She said the Crown, in submitting its views on appropriate sentencing, had to consider the interests of the community as well as the interests of private individuals.<\/p>\n
In setting the final sentence, Justice Churchman awarded discounts for Harris\u2019 rehabilitation prospects, previous good character, remorse and success at restorative justice.<\/p>\n
He said Harris\u2019 release would be determined by the Parole Board. He had confidence that Harris would embrace the rehabilitation programmes available to him.<\/p>\n
He also had confidence in his potential to return to being a valued member of the community and his wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n
A family spokesperson told media outside court they were relieved the justice system had demonstrated a flexibility which acknowledged the close and loving family, as well as the harm done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Tracy Neal, Open Justice reporter An argument over a water tank ended with a man trying to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-156540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156540","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=156540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}