Woman's weekend of hell: abused, assaulted, shot at on Wainui Rd

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She had invited her ex-partner for a weekend of reconciliation but, high on meth, all that jealous and mentally-unstable Rimu Morrell could dish out was terror — not just for the woman but the general public too.

Assaults, verbal abuse, dangerous bouts of long-distance driving, threats to kill and to commit suicide — the 34-year-old’s repeated behaviours during Queen’s Memorial weekend last year were amplified by his brandishing of a cutdown shotgun throughout.

In the background lingered Morrell’s criminal history for various violent acts, including a 2010 conviction for manslaughter, for which he served more than three years in jail.

As the public returned to work on Tuesday September 27, after that special, one-off, long weekend to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth, Morrell’s offending culminated in some highly public acts. In broad daylight he aimed the firearm at his ex-partner as she tried to flee through busy traffic on Wainui Road. She felt the shotgun pellets rush past her leg.

She ran into the BP service station and hid behind a counter. Morrell drove on to the forecourt and went into the store, but left when he couldn’t find her.

At Okitu, he called a friend saying he had killed the woman and needed a lift up the East Coast. He got as far as Whangara before he was stopped by armed police and caused an hours-long closure of SH35 while officers negotiated with him to surrender without incident.

In a victim statement for Morrell’s sentencing in Gisborne District Court yesterday, his ex-partner said she was lucky to still be alive. She hoped he would get the help he clearly needed.

Judge Warren Cathcart said the offending was so grave it justified a starting point of five years’ imprisonment. Discounts reduced it to two years and 10 months.

The judge issued a protection order in favour of the woman and imposed a prohibition order on Morrell — effectively banning him from being anywhere near firearms or ammunition for 10 years.

Those items seized from Morrell would be destroyed, the judge said.

Counsel Alistair Clarke took no issue with any of the orders.

Prosecutor Michael Blaschke said an agreed summary of facts told the story as it unfolded between Sunday, September 25 and Tuesday, September 27 last year. The very different versions of Morrell the victim had experienced over those days made the culmination of being shot at all the more terrifying for her.

The couple had been in an erratic relationship for about a year and had already clocked up four police callouts for family harm incidents. (This sentence was also to cover some earlier offences.)

Last June the woman had moved to Auckland to get away from Morrell but she began communicating with him again and invited him there for the long weekend.

She agreed to go to a tangi with him in Kawerau but on the way it became obvious Morrell was heading to Gisborne. He began interrogating her as to whether she had been “unfaithful”, spoke about killing himself, and stopped for about two hours near Matawai, where he revealed he had a shotgun in his van.

He wanted her to kill him and said he’d show her how.

Eventually the woman had consensual sex with him in the van.  However, during it her phone fell out of her pocket and Morrell went through it while she was asleep. He found a message about a pregnancy test, that made him irate. He headbutted the woman in the nose, causing her intense pain and profuse bleeding.

Holding the shotgun, crying, yelling and swearing, Morrell threatened to kill them both but seeing the woman panicking and hyperventilating, he realised how scared she was, and put the weapon down. He hugged her then got back in the driver’s seat and sped towards Gisborne, irrationally believing every oncoming vehicle was police coming to arrest him.

The woman didn’t know if Morrell was ultimately going to kill her or not. They slept the Sunday night in the van at Kaiti Beach. Waking up to see blood on the woman’s face from his assault on her, Morrell apologised and agreed to take her back to Auckland but persisted with his interrogations and threats to kill them both.

At one point, he stopped in a secluded place, where they got out and he pulled her violently by her hoodie causing her to fall to the ground. He fired a shot in the air saying he wanted police to come and arrest him.

However, they got back in the van and headed to Ōpōtiki, with the woman — exhausted from the ordeal — agreeing to drive.  She had a chance to escape at Matata but stayed with Morrell out of concern he would harm himself.

He had said he wanted police to kill him.

They stayed overnight in a carpark at Whakatāne then arrived at Morrell’s house on Wainui Road, Gisborne, the next morning — Tuesday September 27. Morrell had calmed down, they had consensual sex, and he told her that he loved her.

But that calmness was only fleeting and he started questioning her again.  Sick of the behaviour, the woman punched him once in the mouth. Morrell repeatedly yelling at her to “smash” and “kill” him, saying he wanted to die. He smashed his head into a wall causing a 10cm hole in it. She began to leave but Morrell told her she wasn’t going anywhere. He ran to the van where the shotgun and ammunition were still stored then yelled at her, “Watch this”.

She fled on to Wainui Road where he confronted her in his vehicle while holding the firearm.

Terrified, she ran out into the traffic and Morrell’s offending took on its public phase.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to unlawfully possessing a firearm and ammunition, two counts for discharging it — recklessly and in public — and representative charges of assault within a family relationship and threatening to kill.

Considering mitigating factors in the sentencing exercise, Judge Cathcart accepted Morrell had a “tough” upbringing, mental health issues, and had struggled with methamphetamine addiction, for which he had recently been to a residential rehabilitation programme.

However, the judge said it wasn’t just those factors that drove Morrell’s offending. There was a concerning and familiar “drumbeat of jealousy” throughout it.

“I deal with so many male offenders who accuse their partners of infidelity. They beat them and beat them, usually over unfounded allegations of unfaithfulness, but they are paranoid about it. That was you and no doubt exacerbated by methamphetamine consumption.

“Tragically, it was like a lot of offenders in this scenario — they just can’t grapple with the fact that the girl might have moved on,” Judge Cathcart said.