Police Minister wants greater powers following boy racer incident, recession driving business sales boom and man loses life savings in today's NZ Herald headlines.
Blake James Lambert, 23, may need to sell his car to fund a $15,000 reparation payment to victim Mark Maclean.
Maclean spend 17 days in a coma after Lambert shot him with a BB gun then hit him twice with a tyre iron.
The victim said he would accept a payment but indicated that prison was preferred.
A street racer who shot a father of four in the head with a BB gun during an argument over burnouts then returned to the man’s Warkworth home with a tyre iron, inflicting two blows that left him permanently disabled has been sentenced to home detention.
Auckland District Court judge Belinda Sellars also ordered Mahurangi East resident Blake James Lambert, 23, to give an emotional harm payment of $15,000. While it wasn’t in her power to make the defendant give the victim his “precious” Holden Commodore, the judge strongly suggested Lambert sell the vehicle - as a symbolic gesture of his remorse - to fund the payment.
The family of Mark Maclean, who still can’t work full-time and has a speech impediment after spending over two weeks in a coma, wept as the non-custodial sentence was announced last week. They filed out of the courtroom in disappointment shortly thereafter, before the hearing concluded.
“As a gut reaction, a sentence of imprisonment seems entirely appropriate,” the judge had said moments earlier. “This was thuggish behaviour.
“But that is not my job. I am not here to satisfy vengeance.”
Boy racer frustration
The first of the two confrontations started around 10.30 on a Friday night in December 2022, after “a large group of car enthusiasts” drove past Maclean’s home near the northern edge of the Auckland region, according to the agreed summary of facts for the case.
“Mr Maclean, being frustrated with the ‘boy racer’ activity around his home, confronted and threw stones at the passing vehicles,” court documents state. “Mr Lambert’s vehicle was struck by the stones.”
A fight broke out between Maclean, then 47, and a 19-year-old who was later charged with assault with intent to injure. That charge was later withdrawn by the Crown and the teen was granted name suppression.
Boy racer Blake Lambert appears in the Auckland District Court for sentencing for attacking Warkworth resident Mark MacLean with a tyre iron, leaving him with permanent disabilities. Photo / Alex Burton
“While this altercation was happening, Mr Lambert retrieved a gas-powered BB-pistol from his vehicle and fired several shots at Mr Maclean from his vehicle,” the summary of facts states. “At least one of these pellets struck Mr Maclean in the head, embedding itself in his temple area.”
Lambert and others then left the area and regrouped in the car park of a nearby Mitre 10 to assess the damage to their vehicles. He and two others decided to return to the neighbourhood and confront Maclean again, but this time Lambert opted to arm himself with a tyre iron from his boot before walking down Maclean’s driveway.
When Maclean “walked aggressively” towards him, Lambert stepped back and swung the tyre iron at his head, making contact. He swung a second time, then fled.
‘Life changed immeasurably’
Maclean required immediate surgery for an “indented head fracture to his skull”. Parts of the skull had to be removed to alleviate stress on his brain and he now has a metal plate in his head, which he described as the size of his palm and causing continued numbness down to his jaw. He was placed in an induced coma that lasted 17 days.
“He could walk afterwards but he couldn’t talk, he was just moaning and holding his head and side,” his wife, Dereda Lipsey-Maclean, told the Herald several days later while he was still in a coma.
Lambert, at that point, had not been identified by police as the culprit. Authorities were seeking tips from the public to identify anyone who had been involved in the car group.
Mark Maclean and his wife, Dereda Lispey-Maclean. Photo / Supplied
“I honestly feel like I am in a nightmare that I just can’t wake up out of,” Lipsey-Maclean added.
“... Why would you do this? You’ve just destroyed a family’s Christmas.”
Maclean has been described by his wife as a keen surfer and DJ, as well as a devoted family man whose children ranged in age at the time from 6 to 17. A Givealittle fundraiser that has since ended raised almost $47,000 for the family as they reeled from the incident.
But the damage - financially, physically and mentally - has been lasting, Maclean said in a written victim impact statement that was read aloud in court last week by the prosecutor. Not only has his life been disrupted but so has his entire family’s, he said, explaining that his sister even flew over from Australia to say goodbye because he wasn’t initially expected to live.
Although Maclean was successfully taken out of the coma, he spent three months in hospital learning how to speak again and “coming to terms with my disability”, followed by continuing therapist appointments for another six months.
Before the attack, he was a full-time roof tiler, but afterwards, he was deemed unfit to work. He has been determined to return to the workforce fulltime but isn’t there yet, he said, explaining that he at first was able to put in one part-day per week and now works four part-days per week.
“I sometimes feel anger at myself for no longer being able to provide for my family,” he said, adding that his wife also lost income while having to deal with the immediate aftermath of the attack.
He was unable to drive for a year, putting an extra burden on his wife, and he continues to have a speech impediment that frustrates him when others can’t understand what he’s saying, he said, adding that he can no longer feel the texture of the food he eats.
His youngest two children have ongoing anxiety and need counselling.
“My life has changed immeasurably,” he concluded. “I now realise my life will never be the same as it was before.”
Lambert faced up to five years’ imprisonment for assault with the BB gun and up to 14 years’ imprisonment for purposely inflicting grievous bodily harm with the tyre iron.
Crown prosecutor Aoife Crumley sought a starting point of seven-and-a-half to eight years’ imprisonment, taking into account aggravating factors such as the focus of the attack on Maclean’s head and pre-meditation.
“Mr Lambert had the duration of the drive away from the address and back to the address to consider his actions,” she explained. “This was far from spontaneous.”
Blake Lambert appears in the North Shore District Court in December 2022, shortly after his arrest for attacking Mark Maclean with a tyre iron in Warkwarth. Photo / Craig Kapitan
Crumley suggested the sentence be increased to eight-and-a-half years due to the severity of the injuries and 10 months added for the BB gun assault. But she acknowledged that sentence should then be reduced due to Lambert’s guilty plea, his youth at the time, personal circumstances, his previous good character, his efforts at rehabilitation and his seemingly genuine remorse.
When asked by the judge if the Maclean family would accept emotional harm reparation, Crumley said it would be appreciated but insinuated such a payment wouldn’t be a suitable substitute for prison.
“It doesn’t quite balance out or go near the harm that occurred,” she said of the family’s sentiments.
But defence lawyer Harrison Smith argued that home detention, paired with such a payment, would be the right choice when considering what’s best for society as a whole.
“This is an occasion where a good person has done a bad thing,” he said. “A sentence of imprisonment here will only ruin a second life.”
Defence lawyer Harrison Smith. Photo / Jason Oxenham
If there is any silver lining at all to the incident, Smith added, it’s that Lambert has since been diagnosed with severe and enduring PTSD due to trauma during his childhood that lawyers declined to discuss in open court.
“Mr Lambert has taken steps to address what triggered his response,” the lawyer said. “It’s going to be a long journey.”
Home detention, he added, would allow Lambert to continue working on his family’s farm and to continue counselling for his PTSD. Prison, he suggested, would have the opposite effect on his efforts at rehabilitation.
Responding to questions from the judge, Smith said his client still had the Holden and that it was worth an estimated $7000 to $8000. Although the vehicle was in his mother’s name, Lambert said he was prepared to sell it if it would carry weight for the outcome of the sentence.
Judge Sellars started her sentencing remarks by acknowledging the presence of the Maclean family in the courtroom and noting that no sentence could “change anything that happened”. She also acknowledged Lambert’s family and the letters that were submitted in support of him, adding that there has been “much trauma and tragedy” for everyone.
She rejected the defence’s suggested starting point of five-and-a-half years, instead settling on seven-and-a-half years for the grievous bodily harm charge uplifted to eight years when taking into account the BB gun assault.
But she then allowed the sentence to be reduced by 65%, including 15% for his youth, 10% for his guilty pleas, 15% for rehabilitation efforts including his intensive therapy and voluntary taking of a stopping violence course, 10% for his remorse as demonstrated by the $15,000 emotional harm payment and 15% for personal factors from his childhood outlined in a psychological report.
Judge Belinda Sellars, KC, pictured in the High Court at Auckland in 2020 before she was appointed to the bench. Photo / Michael Craig
Lambert wiped away tears as the judge referred to childhood abuse.
Even with the substantial discounts, his provisional sentence still wasn’t under two years - the point at which a judge can consider swapping out a custodial sentence for home detention. But the judge then gave him a final credit of 10 months for time he spent on electronically monitored bail awaiting trial, bringing the final figure to one year and 11 months.
Home detention was the right choice, Judge Sellars said, because it offered deterrence and denunciation but also left room for rehabilitation. While Lambert is currently assessed as being a low risk of reoffending, that could change if he was sent to prison, she said.
Conditions of his home detention, which will last one year, include continuing to attend counselling as deemed necessary by his probation officer and 300 hours of community work.
Blake Lambert appears in the Auckland District Court for sentencing in November 2024 for attacking Warkworth resident Mark MacLean with a tyre iron, leaving him with permanent disabilities. Photo / Alex Burton
“His life will never, ever be the same again. That applies to all his family,” the judge said of the victim. “Similarly, I suspect your life will never be the same again either, Mr Lambert.”
Lambert’s only words during the hearing were at the conclusion, after learning he wouldn’t be going to prison.
“Thank you for your time,” he told the judge before opening the dock door and walking outside the courtroom to share hugs with supporters.
By that time, the Maclean family had already left the courthouse.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
