Home detention for vicious beating

File photo / NZH

A 17-year-old who admitted taking part in the vicious beating of a Stokes Valley woman was sentenced in Lower Hutt District Court today to four months home detention.

Emily Tairakena, who pleaded guilty last month to injuring with intent, unlawful assembly and assault, was also given 100 hours community work by Judge Paul Barber "to recognise the gravity of the offending."

He described the attack on 36-year-old mother Rebecca Brunning earlier this year as "bad".

Tairakena was one of a group of intoxicated females yelling and swearing outside Ms Brunning's Stokes Valley home at 9.30pm on June 16.

When she went outside, the victim was set upon without provocation. As she lay curled up on the ground, Ms Brunning was punched and kicked in the head and torso numerous times.

She was treated in hospital for a broken nose and right eye socket, also suffering severe bruising to the face, head and upper body.

Judge Barber said the offending was concerning.

"Suffice to say you dispensed rather dreadful violence," he told the teenager in the dock.

"You participated in a systematic beating of an unaided woman. Despite your youth it wouldn't be out of turn to impose a sentence of imprisonment."

However, he would follow the recommendation in the probation officer's report, said Judge Barber.

"Among other things" he had considered was reparation to the victim for emotional harm but the prospect of Tairakena paying that appeared futile.

He mentioned the teen's background of alcohol abuse and her "unstructured lifestyle", making continued counselling for six months a condition of her home detention sentence.

The judge said he was conscious of her age, "relatively early" guilty pleas and the fact that she was virtually a first offender.

"Maybe your youth is why you don't seem that remorseful."

For Tairakena, lawyer Linda Stevens said there was one previous offence of an unrelated nature.

Her client had been attending counselling leading up to today's sentencing. She had entered guilty pleas once the most serious charge of wounding with intent was withdrawn and replaced with injuring with intent.

This morning elder sister Kristyann Tairakena, 19, appeared in the same court and pleaded guilty to the amended charge of injuring with intent, and to unlawful assembly.

Judge Barber convicted her and remanded her on continued bail for a pre-sentence report.

Kristyann Tairakena will appear again on December 7.

A 16-year-old girl involved in the same series of events has been dealt with in the Youth Court and ordered to do community work.

Meanwhile, an arrest warrant is still out for a 22-year-old woman on similar charges.

- NZPA