Charlie Wikitera was jailed for 22 months on multiple violence charges. Photo / 123rf
WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT
After hitting a woman repeatedly around the head with such force the victim struggles to remember the assault, Charlie Wikitera told police, “I smashed the b***h at least 10 times as hard as I could.”
Wikitera had the victim, the second woman he’d assaulted in as many weeks, in a headlock as he dealt the blows, dragging her around her Hamilton home in August last year.
He held her in that headlock with such force it caused her to cough, making her eyes bloodshot.
Wikitera appeared for sentence before Judge Noel Cocurullo in the Hamilton District Court this afternoon on six charges, including burglary, assault with a weapon, assault on a person in a family relationship and intentional damage.
The court heard Wikitera’s violence first began against his then partner, who was pregnant at the time, on August 6 last year.
The pair were at his motel unit accommodation and began arguing about their relationship.
Wikitera became aggressive, picking up a chair and threatening to throw it, before kicking her in the back.
He opened a door and threw her belongings out as she sat down to ring her family. He kicked her two more times.
He was arrested and bailed after appearing in court on August 8.
Just over two weeks later, on August 25, Wikitera texted a different woman for sex. She said no.
He replied that he would be coming around to “punch her head in” in front of her son.
After arriving at her home, Wikitera picked up a clay ashtray and threw it at a door, smashing its glass.
He then punched the victim with a closed fist to her face, picked up a folded chair, and hit her over the back, before putting her in a headlock and punching her 10 times.
After that, he picked up a wooden bat and struck her around the back three or four times.
People heard the commotion and told him to leave her alone. As he left, Wikitera said he would be back to take her car.
The woman suffered multiple injuries including bruising and cuts as well as a suspected broken right arm and finger.
When spoken to by police, Wikitera said: “I was there and I smashed the b***h at least 10 times with my left hand”.
Wikitera’s counsel Johanna Guest said there appeared to have been a deterioration in her client’s mental health between September 2021 and March 2022, when he was admitted to Te Whatu Ora’s Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre.
He was discharged after three weeks and put on a community treatment order, before being put into emergency housing.
The offending happened not long after his discharge.
Guest submitted the lead charge was assault with a weapon and downplayed the burglary charge because Wikitera’s relationship with the second victim implied he could be in her house.
She said they were friends, and he simply wanted help with his washing.
“Mr Wikitera and the victim had an agreement to spend time at his house. At this time he was doing his washing.
“There are comments Mr Wikitera’s alleged to have said, ‘give me back my f****** clothes’.
“Although it’s consistent with elements of a burglary ... it’s not a burglary that would attract a higher sentence.”
Guest said he had been in custody for 196 days and on her calculation, “he is close to time served”.
He was also remorseful and had no history of violent offending.
But Judge Cocurullo disagreed.
“This has been an unlawful entry of a residential dwelling and a woman has been attacked, significantly.”
He said a four- to six-month starting point was not enough prison time to “accurately and properly reflect your offending behaviour”.
There was also an imbalance of power; she was vulnerable and he unlawfully entered her home.
He took an overall start point of 28 months before applying discounts for his guilty plea, remorse and his Section 27 cultural report before coming to an end jail term of 22 months.
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