A \u201cscuffle ensued\u201d and Herman picked a fight, but the other man began to get the better of him.<\/p>\n
Herman then reached for a sharp object after finding himself in a headlock and \u201closing a fight of his own making\u201d. <\/p>\n
Details of the altercation in Hastings<\/a> are contained in a High Court<\/a> judgment after Herman unsuccessfully appealed against the prison sentence he was handed in the district court.<\/p>\n The stabbing: A gross overreaction<\/p>\n Justice David Boldt said Herman found the unidentified sharp object in the back of his vehicle. <\/p>\n He stabbed his victim twice in the neck, narrowly missing an artery.<\/p>\n The victim then released his grip and Herman fled.<\/p>\n The man required surgery and was left in \u201cexcruciating\u201d pain during his \u201clong and challenging\u201d recovery.<\/p>\n The object Herman used in the stabbing was never recovered, but was described by the original sentencing judge as \u201cpotentially lethal\u201d.<\/p>\n The sentencing judge said that using the weapon was a \u201cgross overreaction\u201d to being overpowered in the fight, and \u201cwent way beyond what would have been permissible when acting in self-defence\u201d.<\/p>\n In his appeal decision, Justice Boldt found the jail term, for a conviction of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, was not excessive.<\/p>\n \u201cThe attack on the victim was serious and potentially life-threatening,\u201d Justice Boldt said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [sentencing] judge made no error in selecting the starting point or in the final sentence of five years and seven months imprisonment.\u201d<\/p>\n Foster care and criminal convictions<\/p>\n Herman grew up in New Zealand until he was 14, partly in a boys\u2019 home and foster care, before moving to Brisbane with his mother.<\/p>\n He accumulated more than 20 criminal convictions in Australia, including armed robbery and assault leading to actual bodily harm.<\/p>\n