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Two men cut off part of a flatmate's finger in a dispute over rent, Napier District Court was told yesterday.
Roger Johnson, 46, and Shayne Fryer, 37, both unemployed of Waipukurau, were remanded for sentencing after pleading guilty in Napier District Court to maiming Lee Walter with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, The Dominion Post reported.
Mr Walter, 49, stayed at the defendants' house for a few days on October last year after agreeing to pay $170 and a 1976 Ford Fairmont as rent.
When Mr Walter said that he was unable to pay the cash, the two men, who had been drinking large quantities of alcohol, threatened him with a 30-centimetre-long butcher's knife.
Fryer forced Mr Walter's hand on to a mantelpiece and Johnson severed the finger at the knuckle closest to the fingertip.
- NZPA
