Dunedin man's sentencing delayed after expletive-laden rant at judge

Kaama Tetakoree Waenga. Photo / Rob Kidd

A man who told the judge to "hurry up and do your f****** job" will have to wait another three weeks to be sentenced.

Kaama Tetakoree Waenga has been a headache for authorities for several years, failing to engage with Corrections or mental-health services and deliberately committing crimes to return to prison.

The 31-year-old's defiant streak was apparent at what was scheduled to be his sentencing at the Dunedin District Court on Friday.

Waenga - appearing by video link from prison - chose not to speak to a lawyer despite Judge Michael Turner's strong suggestion he should.

The defendant had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of intentional damage, after smashing three windows of a South Dunedin supermarket on February 4.

Waenga, the court heard, had refused to undergo psychological screening while on remand.

The judge asked him why he had declined.

"I didn't come here because of mental health. I came here because I committed a crime," he said.

Judge Turner asked him why he had committed that offence. "Because we're f****** gangsters, bro. F****** wake up," Waenga said. When the judge warned the man his behaviour was contempt of court, it did little to soothe his aggression.

"Hurry up and do your f****** job, bro. I don't give a f*** what you say," Waenga said.

Judge Turner refused to sentence him and the prisoner was led away by guards, leaving a trail of expletives in his wake.

It had not been the first such outburst and the court heard of Waenga's previous troubles with authority.

After agencies worked to find him accommodation in 2018, he was placed in a motel.

Waenga trashed the premises, causing more than $5000 damage.

Within hours of his release from prison in 2019, he smashed his way into a Mosgiel shop and a bank with a pick axe.

He then called police to pick him up and was later jailed for 21 months.

"This current offending seems to be a continuation of that behaviour," Judge Turner said.

The only way of dealing with Waenga, he said, was a sentence of imprisonment.

That sentencing will take place next month.