Blaine Hughes had his appeal heard in Wellington this week at the Court of Appeal. Photo / File
Blaine Hughes had his appeal heard in Wellington this week at the Court of Appeal. Photo / File
A man who has spent almost a decade behind bars for the attempted murder of a 13-year-old girl now claims he made up his murderous intent to avoid allegations of a sexual motive.
"I would do anything to have that withdrawn ... I was desperate to have it taken out," Blaine Ross Hughes told the Court of Appeal this week.
Hughes, 29, was sentenced at the end of 2014 to preventive detention with a minimum non-parole period of five years after attacking the girl in a Timaru park in 2013.
Now he says he never intended to murder the young teen as he had told authorities at the time – claiming he made that up to protect himself in prison, where child sex offenders can be a target for violence.
Hughes has appealed his sentence and conviction, arguing he was high on synthetic cannabis and didn't know his real intentions when he dragged a girl off her bike, choking her to the point of unconsciousness.
"I'm glad it didn't go any further because I don't know what would have happened if it did," he said.
"I don't remember thinking past getting her in the car. I remember it happening so fast. I remember putting my arm around her neck ... yeah, I don't know."
Defence lawyer Kathy Basire said the appeal was a long time coming for her client, with his preventive detention sentence being one of the harshest available in the New Zealand justice system.
Basire said Hughes never knew his real intentions, and an appeal for a finite sentence should be granted by the courts because of inadequate legal representation and police conduct in 2013 and 2014.
Crown prosecutor Charlotte Brook said Hughes always knew what he was doing, and wasn't naïve to the implications of his "lies" and "stories".
The Crown argued that the delay in appealing, and the fact Hughes stuck to his story for years, meant his appeal should be denied.
Hughes was 20 years old when he attacked the girl, and then pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted murder as well as dishonesty and theft charges.
Despite his age, his criminal history was extensive, with more than 80 convictions.
Blaine Ross Hughes is appealing his conviction and sentence for the attempted murder of a 13-year-old girl in 2013. Photo / NZ Police
Hughes was in Washydyke, an industrial suburb in Timaru on the night of December 3, 2013.
He had been in his car smoking synthetic cannabis before approaching the girl about 8pm, grabbing her around her neck and pulling her off her bike.
He dragged her backwards over a barbed wire fence and into some nearby bushes and only stopped when he was noticed by a member of the public.
Hughes then fled the scene.
The intervening passerby was awarded a police District Commander's commendation for bravery in 2014.
Hughes later admitted to police he had intended to kill the girl, after first saying he wanted to steal her bike because he had run out of petrol in his car. His house was just 700m away.
He now argues he didn't know what he would have done with the girl if he had got her back to his vehicle, where a machete and broken firearm were later located.
The Crown highlighted the number of differing stories Hughes told, including the bike theft and also a plan to ransom the girl. He admitted all were made up.
Brook said the truth of Hughes' real intention would never be known.
"The only person who knows the truth is you and you're not telling," she said to Hughes.
Hughes received preventive detention in 2014 because of his admission of "homicidal ideations", and his own suggestion he could offend again.
He insisted on speaking with police without the assistance of his lawyer in May 2014, who advised Hughes against it warning him it wouldn't end well.
After that conversation he was charged with attempted murder.
In 2018 – four years into his sentence - Hughes turned his back on the Head Hunters, a gang he was a prospect for, and opted to move into the segregated unit to break away from his gang affiliation.
He says this is when he started to turn his life around, and began looking at the process of appeal.
But Brook said all that Hughes had put forward was "utterly self-serving" and consistent with how he has conducted himself "from start to finish".
"Mr Hughes is not a vulnerable 20-year-old. He doesn't have mental illness. He knows what he's doing in the criminal justice system," she said.
