Savay Barnes-Manuel dragged the victim's unconscious body to a park and placed him in the recovery position. Photo / Michael Cunningham
A man was beaten unconscious and dragged to a park, where his attackers continued kicking him in the head.
The assault only stopped when one of them realised the victim was on the verge of death.
“Stop, you’re gonna kill him,” one said as the other kept kicking.
Now Savay Barnes-Manuel has been jailed for four years and nine months for the violent assault in November 2023 that left his victim with severe head injuries.
The 22-year-old appeared for sentencing on one charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm in relation to the violent assault.
The victim had reportedly borrowed a car from a family member of Barnes-Manuel, which had not been returned.
Barnes-Manuel and his co-offender, who was reportedly much younger, drove to an address in Otāngarei, Whangārei and when the victim saw them he fled on foot along Jack St.
The pair chased him in the vehicle Barnes-Manuel was driving along a grass verge and eventually exited the vehicle.
Barnes-Manuel had a steel chain, and his co-offender was armed with a claw hammer and a glass bottle. Barnes-Manuel threw the chain away and began punching the man in the face as he fell to his knees.
The pair continued to assault the victim while he was on his knees. He was then kicked as he lay prone on the ground.
The co-offender kicked, punched and stomped on the victim’s head, body and legs and struck him multiple times with the claw-hammer.
The victim became unconscious but the assault continued until Barnes-Manuel pushed his co-offender away.
The co-offender came in again and stomped on his head while Barnes-Manuel kicked him in the head one more time.
The pair eventually dragged the unconscious victim to the park and placed him in the recovery position.
While doing this, the co-offender continued to stomp on his head until Barnes-Manuel saw the man was seriously in trouble.
“Stop, you’re gonna kill him,” Barnes-Manuel told the co-offender as he stood over him, preventing his friend from further attacking the unconscious man.
“That was exactly right and that was the right thing to do after all the wrong you’ve done,” Judge Gene Tomlinson told Barnes-Manuel at his sentencing on Tuesday.
The victim was rendered unconscious with a skull fracture, brain bleed, laceration to the head and a broken arm.
Barnes-Manuel was supported by a large crowd of whānau and friends amid multiple testimonies that his actions were out of character.
A section 27 cultural report was submitted to the court outlining Barnes-Manuel’s history, however, the Crown was critical of the report writer.
“We can talk about how we arrived at this point but it doesn’t address what support will be available after his rehabilitation,” Crown lawyer Pablo Hambler submitted.
“If this is the environment that produced Barnes and that’s what he’s going back to, it gives the Crown concern about his rehabilitation,” Hambler said.
Judge Tomlinson agreed the reporter writers had “let themselves down badly”.
“This offending was not inevitable, you were not on a path to offending,” Judge Tomlinson said.
Judge Tomlinson said the assault had ”homicide written all over it” and took a moment to directly address Barnes-Manuel.
“I can’t get my head around why you did what you did, it really pains me that you’ve put yourself in this situation because this conduct is out of character. It’s not the man you know you are,” Judge Tomlinson said.
Judge Tomlinson reminded the court he was bound by the sentencing regulations for charges that fell into band three.
“The court’s response can only be a term of imprisonment.
“Four years and nine months is an extremely long time but it is a proportionate response to your very serious offending.”
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.
The Whangārei-born spokesman says he is passionate about speaking out for justice.