All Black angered by hammer accused

Toma Lauaki outside court. Picture / Dean Purcell

All Black Sione Lauaki says a man accused of a hammer attack on a truck driver has been trying to hide behind his name.

The Herald is today able to name Toma Lauaki as the man who appeared last week in the Manukau District Court on a charge of intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The 35-year-old Mangere carpenter and father of four is charged with attacking Barry William Fletcher on Tuesday last week.

The attack, which put Mr Fletcher in hospital, was caught on closed circuit television cameras.

When he appeared in court, Toma Lauaki was given temporary name suppression pending an appeal against Judge David Harvey's decision not to suppress his name.

His grounds for remaining anonymous were that his father had a serious heart problem and that he had a close relative taking part in a sporting activity over the weekend who could do without the publicity.

However, the appeal was abandoned yesterday.

Sione Lauaki, speaking at an All Blacks training session at Western Springs Stadium, said he was not related to the accused man.

The All Black, who was on the bench during Saturday's match against South Africa in Dunedin, said he had spoken to his family and none of them knew of him.

"There's a few last name Lauakis out there, just no relation. [It's] just him trying to hide behind my name. It's really sad."

The revelation has left Sione Lauaki and his parents annoyed.

"I'm just pretty upset that he did what he did. He was just trying to hide behind my name and my family. I'm disappointed that my family had to put up with that."

The Herald was unable to reach Toma Lauaki's lawyer, Nalesoni Tupou, for comment last night.

Frank Hogan stood in for Mr Tupou during Lauaki's first appearance at which Judge Harvey said he was not prepared to grant suppression because of the amount of publicity surrounding images from the case. Mr Hogan had no comment last night.

During the attack, Mr Fletcher suffered fractures to his right ankle and left wrist, gashes to the bone on his lower right leg and bruising when he was attacked with a claw hammer in the cab of his truck in Savill Drive, Mangere. He was then dragged from the cab.

Toma Lauaki is on bail, and has yet to enter a plea. He is due to reappear in court tomorrow.