{"id":278220,"date":"2026-02-11T06:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T06:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/278220\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T06:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T06:15:08","slug":"sheryl-louden-sentenced-for-being-a-party-to-a-brutal-attack-in-opunake-south-taranaki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/278220\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheryl Louden sentenced for being a party to a brutal attack in \u014cpunake, South Taranaki"},"content":{"rendered":"

The victim stayed with Louden at her \u014cpunake<\/a> home in South Taranaki<\/a> for about two weeks until June 13 last year, when the two began arguing.<\/p>\n

Louden asked the woman to leave, but the woman said she would leave the following morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou, disgruntled about that advice, then left your property and, in short, enlisted others to eject your victim from your address,\u201d Judge Turitea Bolstad told Louden, referring to the summary of facts. <\/p>\n

\"SherylSheryl Louden was sentenced in New Plymouth District Court. Photo \/ Tara Shaskey<\/p>\n

At 2.30am, three women, including one who was armed with a gun, turned up at Louden\u2019s property and beat the victim.<\/p>\n

Louden was not there when the assault occurred, but she was aware her friends were there to evict the woman, and of the prospect of violence, the court heard.<\/p>\n

The victim was dragged out of the property, punched in the head numerous times, and her head was stomped on.<\/p>\n

She was subjected to abuse by Louden\u2019s three co-accused, was threatened she would be killed, and a gun was \u201cpresented\u201d at her.<\/p>\n

Rifle shot at daughter\u2019s feet<\/p>\n

Before the victim left the property, she was given a phone by one of her attackers, as it was believed the phone belonged to her.<\/p>\n

However, the victim\u2019s daughter later received messages from one of the co-accused demanding the phone be returned.<\/p>\n

They negotiated with the daughter that the phone would be returned in exchange for the victim\u2019s cats, which were still at Louden\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

The daughter was told that if the phone was not given back, the cats would be shot.<\/p>\n

She went to Louden\u2019s to return it but when she handed it over, one of the co-accused tried to close the door before handing over the cats, which were in a cage.<\/p>\n

The daughter tried to hold the door open and reached for the cats, but she was shoved backwards.<\/p>\n

She then went to leave but the co-accused followed her, before going back inside.<\/p>\n

At that point, Louden came out with the cats to give to the daughter.<\/p>\n

However, the co-accused returned outside and intervened, demanding that the daughter hand over her car keys in exchange for the cats.<\/p>\n

The co-accused was brandishing a rifle, made further threats, and then fired a shot at the victim\u2019s daughter\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n

She was terrified but managed to escape the property unharmed.<\/p>\n

Judge Bolstad said Louden told a presentence report writer that she had met the victim on the street, the victim was homeless and crying, and \u201cout of the kindness of her heart\u201d Louden invited her to stay at her home.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe attack happened in \u014cpunake, South Taranaki. Photo \/ Tara Shaskey<\/p>\n

\u201cIn doing so, you didn\u2019t expect that she would bring cats and this caused friction between you and her,\u201d the judge said, referring to the report. <\/p>\n

As a result of the cats, and a claim that the victim was using drugs at her home, Louden asked her to leave.<\/p>\n

The report writer said it was evident Louden disliked the victim.<\/p>\n

Through a victim impact statement, read by Crown prosecutor Curtis Fatiaki, the victim said the violence had affected her to the core, \u201clike termites in wood\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said she has had seizures as a result, having suffered a concussion, and struggles with breathing through her nose.<\/p>\n

The victim said she felt angry and frustrated all the time, struggled with sleep, experienced panic attacks, and has had to relocate \u201cfor her safety\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo come in a pack and gang up on one is weak and a sign of society. It is shameful that someone is capable of that. You can\u2019t trust anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victim said the offending has also had a huge effect on her daughter, and their relationship. <\/p>\n

\u2018I didn\u2019t mean for her to get hurt like that\u2019<\/p>\n

In his submissions, Fatiaki accepted Louden\u2019s culpability was less than that of her co-accused but said her involvement should not be understated.<\/p>\n

Although Louden was not directly involved in the violence, she would have had knowledge that it might ensue when she enlisted the help of her friends to evict the victim, he submitted. <\/p>\n

Defence lawyer Nathan Bourke said Louden, who was visibly upset while in the dock, deeply regretted what had happened. <\/p>\n

She has no criminal history, except for a minor traffic matter two decades ago, and the incident was completely out of character for her, Bourke submitted. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe does take it seriously, she does acknowledge where things went wrong, and you won\u2019t see her [in court] again,\u201d he told the judge.<\/p>\n

Judge Bolstad said Louden could be clearly identified as the instigator.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for her actions, this could all have been avoided. And what I mean by that, is that it is her that has sought the assistance of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Louden spoke to the judge, claiming a \u201clack of knowledge\u201d and that she had been afraid of the woman.<\/p>\n

However, she accepted there was no excuse for what happened. <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t mean for her to get hurt like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Bolstad stressed that Louden should have involved the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an illustration of how things can go seriously wrong. Because if there was any real concern, never mind your mates, you should have gone straight to the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Bolstad took issue with the premeditation involved, the number of people involved in the attack, and the harm caused to the victim.<\/p>\n

She took into account Louden\u2019s guilty plea to the charge of being a party to injuring with intent to injure, her remorse and her personal circumstances, before landing on an end sentence of nine months\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n

Due to Louden being a first-time offender and the judge believing she was genuinely remorseful, her sentence was converted to four months and two weeks of community detention, and six months of supervision.<\/p>\n

Two of Louden\u2019s co-accused have pleaded guilty to the attack and will be sentenced at a later date. The third intends to defend her charge at trial.<\/p>\n

Tara Shaskey is an assistant editor and reporter for the Open Justice team. She joined NZME in 2022 and has worked as a journalist since 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The victim stayed with Louden at her \u014cpunake home in South Taranaki for about two weeks until June…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[89,682,110,2082,78,156264,111,43,139,69,4762,141932,5161,156263,1240,16715,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-278220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-attack","9":"tag-being","10":"tag-brutal","11":"tag-for","12":"tag-in","13":"tag-louden","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-party","19":"tag-punake","20":"tag-sentenced","21":"tag-sheryl","22":"tag-south","23":"tag-taranaki","24":"tag-to"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278220","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=278220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}