The teen had purchased the machete from Hunting and Fishing on the day of the attack. Photo / 123RF
The teen had purchased the machete from Hunting and Fishing on the day of the attack. Photo / 123RF
A high school student wrote a detailed “kill plan” and told his ex to stay away from school on the day he wanted to kill her new boyfriend.
But when his plans went awry, the teen instead went to his schoolmate’s home days later, swinging a machete at his victim’s head, slicing open his chest and forearm.
In an impact statement today, his victim said he still considered his attacker a friend but never wanted to see him again.
“I still care about [the defendant] as a friend but I hate what he has allowed himself to become, and also his parents for not raising a better son,” he said.
“I’m ready to live but I feel so held back by this past event.”
The now-16-year-old defendant appeared in the Wellington High Court this morning where he was sentenced to 12 months home detention for the shocking attack.
Youth Court Judge Jan Kelly earlier ruled the charge against the teen of attempting to murder his classmate in the attack in May 2022 was proven. The boy, who cannot be identified due to his age, earlier faced a judge-alone trial in the Wellington Youth Court.
Police initially charged the teen with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, which he admitted. They later added the charge of attempted murder.
Judge Kelly spoke of Google searches the boy did for balaclavas, gloves and weapons in the days leading up to the attack, as well as conversations he had with other schoolmates, which supported the charge of attempted murder.
The boy and his victim had been good friends in the past but drifted apart after they began high school.
The defendant started dating a girl in 2021 but, as the relationship progressed, he became “possessive” and would get jealous if she spent time with other boys.
Police told the court the boy felt deeply for his girlfriend, verging on an obsession.
The pair split after several months, and she began seeing the victim.
The defendant started to compile information from the internet and began forming a “kill plan”, which Judge Kelly described as “chilling”.
The last entry in his kill plan notes read: “If arrested, it is what it is”.
Days before the attack he told another classmate he had been hired to kill someone.
The next day he went to school, planning to use a knife to kill the victim, but his plan was thwarted after showing the knife to a friend.
The boy was spotted by his brother, who took him to the school office and asked if he could go home.
He was suspended from school but, undeterred, the boy bought a machete and messaged the victim telling him he wanted to fight him.
The teen appeared in the Wellington District Court for the eight-day judge-alone trial earlier this year. Photo / NZME
The victim refused and the defendant threatened to show up at his house. Thinking it was a joke, the victim said through messages: “Alright sweet, tell him to come around”.
The defendant arrived with a 61cm machete, wearing a black mask and gloves.
The pair began to fight and the victim suffered serious injuries when he was hit twice with the machete.
The first blow landed on his chest and the second, made with an overhead swing, gashed the victim’s forearm as he raised it to protect his head. Several tendons and muscles were exposed.
The cut to his chest caused a shard of rib to splinter off, puncturing and collapsing his lung.
“So, I seen my chest it was like open, open like I could, oh, like I could feel the lungs like in there and like the heartbeat and that was real scary because those things are meant to be kept inside you,” the victim said in his evidence.
The attack only ended when the victim’s parents intervened and his father confiscated the machete. The defendant fled the scene.
He was caught by police two days later in Palmerston North while travelling on a bus to the Bay of Plenty, still wearing a hoodie with bloodstains on it.
During time at a residential facility, he told a staff member he was going to finish off what he failed to do when he got out of the residence.
The victim impact statement was read out in the high court today before Justice Christine Grice. According to the statement, the boy missed a whole year of school due to the physical and psychological effects of the attack.
The boy, who was 15 at the time of the attack, said he used to be loud and outgoing, but now felt he shouldn’t draw attention to himself, for his own protection.
He felt anxious in public and was quick to see the negatives in other people.
“My life was almost taken. At my very core I knew that night I’d be alright but I believe I could have so easily fallen off the face of the Earth.”
Crown prosecutor Stephanie Bishop said aggravating factors of the offending included the “significant” premeditation, use of a weapon and the serious injuries inflicted.
While youth have automatic name suppression in the youth court jurisdiction, moving the case to the high court meant this did not automatically continue.
A decision on whether name suppression should lapse for the defendant has been put off until April so his lawyer can seek opinions from medical professionals on how being named would affect the boy.
The Crown suggested the judge should adopt a starting sentencing point of 9-10 years in prison before discounts, but defence lawyer Louise Sziranyi said an imprisonment sentence would undo all the good work the defendant had done on his rehabilitation.
Justice Grice took a starting point of seven years in prison, but with discounts for factors including rehabilitative prospects and time already spent in a youth facility and on bail, she came to an end sentence of 12 months home detention.
