Brutal Porirua assault left man’s broken face ‘unrecognisable’, court hears

• Two men have been sentenced for a violent assault outside a Porirua bar
• One victim suffered severe head and face injuries and a year on has no taste or sense of smell.
• Judge Bruce Davidson sentenced Stewart Dennis and Simon Nafatali to home detention for the attack

A man viciously assaulted during work Christmas drinks said he looked in the mirror afterwards and wondered if he was a character from a horror movie.

The victim still has no sense of taste or smell a year on from the attack, which happened outside a bar in Porirua on December 17, 2023.

The man was “unrecognisable” after the beating he received, which included being kicked in the head repeatedly as he lay on the ground. His workmate was also knocked unconscious.

Two men, Stewart Dennis and Simon Nafatali appeared in the Wellington District Court today for sentencing, having pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to injure. Dennis had also pleaded guilty to injuring with intent to injure.

Judge Bruce Davidson said Dennis punched one of the victims in the face, knocking him out. The second victim tripped and fell to the ground, and the men began kicking him in the head.

He suffered a fractured eye socket, forehead, nose, and cheekbones, and required facial reconstruction surgery.

The first victim said the attack happened after he went outside to vape and Dennis began confronting and questioning him.

The man, who was on ACC for an ankle injury at the time, said he tried to defuse the situation, but felt Dennis was just looking for a fight.

He said he would normally have sought retribution against the attackers himself, but his partner convinced him to follow the court process.

Judge Bruce Davidson sentenced the two men to home detention. Photo / File

"You don’t know how lucky you are," he said in his victim impact statement.

Dennis was “nothing but a coward”.

“You attacked someone who didn’t even have the use of both his legs.

“You p****** carried on kicking a man in the head when he was already knocked down.”

His partner read her own victim impact statement, saying as a nurse she was “terrified” over whether the victims would have serious head injuries.

“Who gave you the right to deliver a coward’s punch to my partner? You could have completely changed the course of our lives.”

She described the other victim as “unrecognisable”.

“How dare you impact on my life in this way? You came in uninvited and upended our lives.”

The other victim’s statement was read out to the court. He described seeing himself after the brutal attack.

“[I remember] looking into the bathroom mirror and what I saw looking back wasn’t me,” he said. “Was I a character from a horror movie?”

He spent weeks alone in his bedroom not wanting to leave the house.

“I still have no tastebuds and have a loss of smell for now,” he said.

At sentencing, Judge Davidson referred to the “significant, if not profound” impact the offending had on the two victims and their whanau.

He noted the attackers had both taken rehabilitative steps, and Stewart had saved $5000 to make an emotional harm reparation payment.

He allowed discounts to the sentences for factors including guilty pleas, remorse, counselling, the ability to make a reparation payment, and community support. Dennis was also assessed as being unlikely to reoffend.

Judge Davidson sentenced Dennis to nine months of home detention, and Nafatali to eight months home detention.

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.