{"id":297278,"date":"2026-02-22T23:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/297278\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T23:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:51:10","slug":"auckland-woman-jemima-wasson-beat-boyfriends-sleeping-brother-around-head-with-a-frying-pan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/297278\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland woman Jemima Wasson beat boyfriend\u2019s sleeping brother around head with a frying pan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr S was asleep in his upstairs bedroom when he was awoken by Wasson striking him multiple times on the head with a 28cm frying pan.<\/p>\n

He woke to find Wasson naked, standing next to him, holding the frying pan in her right hand and a large kitchen knife in her left hand. <\/p>\n

A High Court<\/a> decision said they had a brief \u201cverbal interaction\u201d before the man fled from the room.<\/p>\n

Wasson, who has ambitions to become a teacher, then returned to the bedroom downstairs where she was staying.<\/p>\n

Injuries to head, ear and nose<\/p>\n

The man suffered lacerations to his left ear, the top of his head and the bridge of his nose, which was left tender and swollen.<\/p>\n

\u201cMs Wasson has subsequently explained in her evidence that she does not remember much of the event because she was high on methamphetamine and had not slept in days,\u201d High Court Justice Laura O\u2019Gorman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time she believed she had to attack Mr S to keep her place in the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wasson was later convicted and sentenced to 18 months of intensive supervision on charges of assault with a weapon, along with resisting and assaulting police officers.<\/p>\n

The charges of assaulting and resisting police stemmed from a separate incident, in November 2023. <\/p>\n

Three police officers went to a property in Westmere<\/a>, Auckland<\/a>, looking for Wasson.<\/p>\n

One of the officers told her she was under arrest and directed her to put her hands behind her back to be handcuffed.<\/p>\n

Wasson refused so \u201clight pain compliance techniques\u201d were used to make her comply.<\/p>\n

Spat into police officer\u2019s mouth<\/p>\n

Wasson was then lifted up from a bed, at which point she looked up and spat directly into the mouth of one of the police officers. <\/p>\n

Wasson has sought a discharge without conviction for her offending, telling the courts that being convicted would have a \u201cdetrimental impact\u201d on her ambition to work as a teacher.<\/p>\n

Her lawyer also argued that a conviction would impact on her mental health and rehabilitative prospects. <\/p>\n

However, at sentencing in the North Shore<\/a> District Court<\/a>, Judge Evangelos Thomas said that a discharge was inappropriate because of the gravity of the offending.<\/p>\n

It would also be an \u201cappalling insult to the victim\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

\"JusticeJustice Laura O’Gorman declined the appeal against conviction. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Wasson appealed against her conviction to the High Court, submitting fresh evidence outlining her mental health and addiction issues.<\/p>\n

But Justice O\u2019Gorman said the end sentence of intensive supervision supported, rather than inhibited, Wasson\u2019s support and treatment.<\/p>\n

In regard to future teacher registration<\/a>, the judge said the police vetting procedures would uncover her \u201ccomplex mental history and this offending conduct\u201d regardless of whether a conviction was maintained or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider the conviction is a challenging but important part of promoting in Ms Wasson accountability, a sense of responsibility for and an acknowledgement of the harm caused, and ensuring that Ms Wasson engages in meaningful reflection and rehabilitation before seeking teacher registration,\u201d Justice O\u2019Gorman said.<\/p>\n

She dismissed the appeal against conviction.<\/p>\n

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME\u2019s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke\u2019s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr S was asleep in his upstairs bedroom when he was awoken by Wasson striking him multiple times…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[665,33241,51,4498,14796,81952,31468,2245,163801,106,21666,163799,61094,3242,1304,34700,111,139,69,37342,27250,213,163800,102,8211,1354],"class_list":{"0":"post-297278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-around","9":"tag-asleep","10":"tag-auckland","11":"tag-beat","12":"tag-beating","13":"tag-boyfriends","14":"tag-brother","15":"tag-early","16":"tag-frying","17":"tag-head","18":"tag-holding","19":"tag-jemima","20":"tag-knife","21":"tag-large","22":"tag-morning","23":"tag-naked","24":"tag-new-zealand","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-pan","28":"tag-sleeping","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-wasson","31":"tag-with","32":"tag-woken","33":"tag-woman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297278","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=297278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}