Beejay Harrison, 22, was also involved and has pleaded guilty to two charges of injuring with intent to injure. He is currently undergoing programmes through the Youth List court but will be sentenced at a Crown fixture later this year.
Another man, Kobra Puhia, 27, has pleaded not guilty to charges he faces in relation to the incident and is still progressing through the court system. The alleged nature of his involvement is therefore withheld.
The four men had been at a 21st birthday party before they went to Smash Palace at about 1am on Sunday, June 27, 2021. Mohi arrived there later than the other three.
Noticeably inebriated, they were refused service and began abusing the manager, who asked the bouncer to speak with them as he knew them.
They calmed down and remained in the bar talking with other people before leaving on foot. However, they had not walked far before they decided to go back to the bar and were outside it when Mohi arrived.
The bouncer refused him entry, to which Mohi responded by hurling abuse, taking off his shirt, and proposing a fight.
A relative of Mohi who happened to be leaving the bar saw him and tried to intervene. But he started arguing with her and kept trying to reach the bouncer, who was standing at the top of the driveway with other security staff.
Mohi suddenly punched the bouncer in the head, continuing to do so and kicking out at him as the security group tried to move Mohi and his group on to the road.
A patron tried to put himself between Mohi and the bouncer but in doing so suddenly became a target for Tuhi, who ran at him, jumped on him, and punched and kicked him to the ground.
The downed man was trying to protect his head with his hands as Tuhi continued to punch, kick, and stomp on him until he became unconscious.
Tuhi then joined in Mohi’s ongoing attack on the bouncer, who also ended up on the ground.
One of the other security staff ran into the affray to try to protect the bouncer who was still being repeatedly punched in the head by the pair. Tuhi was also repeatedly kicking and stomping on his head.
At one point, the bouncer lost consciousness.
Harrison was involved throughout and like Mohi, had taken off his shirt. He milled around both complainants as they were under attack, abusing them and encouraging the attackers by yelling comments including, “Hit that fat f***” and “f*** him up”.
He punched the bouncer numerous times and kicked him while he was on the ground.
The incident, described by one of the men’s lawyers as a “stupid, alcohol-fuelled attack”, lasted about four minutes. It ended when police sirens were heard and more bystanders tried to intervene. Tuhi stood over the bouncer with his arms raised in victory before he and the rest of the group fled.
The bouncer suffered severe bruising and swelling to his eye and the rest of his face, lacerations and scratches to his elbows and chest. He was flown to Waikato Hospital where he underwent surgery for his eye. However, his sight could not be recovered. It was not known which of the group inflicted the blows that damaged his eye.
The patron wasn’t sure how long he was unconscious during the attack. Taken to hospital after it, he was gurgling blood and struggling to breathe, bleeding profusely out of both ears and from various cuts to his face. He suffered significant bruising to his body and face. His teeth were damaged and he couldn’t open his mouth properly for several days.
Judge Cathcart said the violence was “very serious — unprovoked and gratuitous” — but not at the “extreme” level of some comparable cases. While the bouncer’s injury “should never be under-estimated, regrettably there were cases that demonstrated even more severe injuries from these group-type attacks”.
In determining the sentences, the judge accepted there had to be a lower starting point for Mohi who hadn’t actually attacked the patron, though he had encouraged the others to do so. The judge set a starting point for him at four and a half years imprisonment; and for Tuhi, one of six years, two months imprisonment.
Mitigating factors that reduced Tuhi’s sentence were his early guilty pleas, remorse and participation in restorative justice, his time on electronically monitored bail (528 days) and relatively good compliance on it, and his personal circumstances.
Discounts Mohi received were for similar factors but also for his relative youth.
