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A teenager involved in a home invasion, which sparked the massive "Enough is Enough" anti-crime rally in Hastings four months ago, has been sent to jail by a judge who feared a public backlash if he did anything less.
Vinnie Freeman Herewini was one of four who burst into a house in Flaxmere, on June 8, and attacked a 21-year-old man whose girlfriend fled in fear with the couple's 6-week-old child.
As police hunted the offenders, the woman's father, district councillor Henare O'Keefe, organised a public march in Hastings deploring Hawkes Bay's increase in violent crime. It drew thousands on June 27.
In Napier District Court this week, Herewini, 18, was sent to jail for two years and one month, the Hawke's Bay Today reported.
Judge Tony Adeane said that to impose a non-custodial sentence would provoke a "public outcry" and that a sentence of home detention would have "real problems", because of the violence of the attack and the public's right to confidence in court responses.
- NZPA
