KEY POINTS:
A Christchurch boy-racer who beat, kicked and robbed a man who photographed him doing wheelies was today sentenced to home detention and community work.
Joshua James Brendon Herrick, 21, was also ordered to pay his victim $414 for the camera he snatched and destroyed, and another $500 for emotional harm, the Christchurch Court News website reported.
Herrick told Christchurch District Court Judge John Bisphan he was willing to apologise to the victim if he got a chance.
The incident in Wickham Street, in suburban Bromley, took place on a day when he was not taking his medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression, he explained.
After a delay over sentencing, Judge Bisphan told Herrick: "You may have noticed I have taken a long time over this, because I am struggling to keep you out of prison."
Herrick was doing wheelies in the street when the victim, who lives or works nearby, photographed him to get a picture of the car's licence plate.
"You must have seen this, so you parked your vehicle, got out, and as the victim was walking away you punched him twice in the side of the head and he fell to the ground.
"While he was on the ground you kicked him and then picked up the camera and left.
"You took the camera so that any evidence against you would be removed or obliterated."
Urging a sentence of home detention or community detention, defence counsel Paul Johnson said Herrick's ADHD meant he reacted quicker than he should have.
He panicked when he saw the man photographing him and reacted violently on the spur of the moment.
Judge Bisphan said: "I regard this piece of gratuitous violence as serious in today's climate of people being worried about cars being driven badly.
"But I don't think you are such a risk to the community that you have to go to prison."
He noted that Herrick had one other conviction for assault, for an attack on his partner. He was already under conditions imposed by the Family Court and could take courses to curb his violence of his own volition.
Herrick will have to serve six months of electronically monitored home detention at his home, and do 200 hours of community work, as well as make the payments to his victim.
- NZPA
