Army trainee quits after attack

A former trainee army medic described in court today how an unprovoked knife attack on him by a fellow soldier left him so psychologically scarred that he has had to leave the army.

His attacker, Logan Wiki Hogdson, who admitted charges of attempted murder and burglary, was sentenced in the High Court at Timaru to 7-1/2 years in jail for the attack at the Tekapo Army Camp in June 2008.

Hodgson, who was 17 at the time of the offence, was also given a 12-month concurrent jail sentence for burglary.

Ryan Scarlet, who was 19 at the time of the attack, said he had been sharing a bunkroom with Hodgson at the Tekapo camp and had been asleep when sudden pain in his face woke him.

"There was blood everywhere and I though I was going to bleed to death," he said.

Mr Scarlet said he then noticed wounds to his arms and hands as well as heavy bleeding from head wounds and began calling out for help.

Mr Scarlet said he received about 25 stitches to his wounds in the Timaru Hospital early the next day and said he still suffered physical pain from the wounds to his head, arms and hands but the psychological effects of the attack were the most difficult to explain and endure.

He said it was some time before he realised what had happened and what could have happened and it had made him feel physically sick. He said the memory of the attack occupied his thoughts "all the time" and, when he was alone, his thoughts always returned to Tekapo.

He then stopped reading his victim impact report for a few moments to regain his composure.

Mr Scarlet said he had always wanted to be part of the army but had recently resigned in an effort to put the incident behind him.

He said felt lucky in a strange way to be in court to hear the sentence of his attacker and lucky that he would be able to live out the rest of his life.

In imposing sentence Justice Graham Pankhurst said that, on the night of the attack, the pair had gone to bed relatively early and the victim had gone to sleep but Hodgson got up again at about midnight and went outside for a while, listening to music on his MP4 player. After about an hour, he returned to the bunkroom, took out a Swiss Army knife, opened the blade and had tried to stab Mr Scarlet in the throat, to sever his vocal cords and stop him crying out. He hesitated as he was about to stab and the victim stirred and rolled over.

"It was fortuitous that he stirred but you struck anyway," he said.

Justice Pankhurst said instead of the throat, the blow hit the victim in the face near his eye. There was a second stab to the face as the victim woke up and protected himself with his arms.

Hodgson stabbed him in the forearms and hands as he tried to get at his throat. Hodgson fled from Tekapo Camp, broke into an unoccupied house where he stole warm clothes and other items and later slept on the ground in a stand of trees.

He was arrested by police early in the morning after the attack on the road to Twizel.

Justice Pankhurst said he noted that when asked why he had attacked the victim, Hodgson had given a one-word reply -- curiosity. He said he had taken into account the defendant's immaturity at the time of the attack and medical reports, which revealed previously unreported sexual abuse.

Justice Pankhurst said he would not impose a minimum non-parole period to give the Parole Board as much flexibility as possible. He told Hodgson that the time he spent in prison would depend on him.

- NZPA