On December 9 while staying in a Lower Hutt hotel, Hendry left to help a friend who’d had a car crash.
When he returned the victim had fallen asleep, missing his calls and texts asking to be let back in.
Hendry became angry and struck the victim on the face. He made her sit in a chair and applied an ice pack before pushing his thumbs into her eyes and putting her in a headlock, eventually releasing the grip on her neck.
Days later while in a car in the Wairarapa town of Martinborough, Hendry grabbed the victim and pinned her head in his lap so her back was against the gear stick.
When she struggled and caused the gear stick to move, Hendry told her to stop moving and gripped her throat. Unable to breath the strangulation only ended when the victim pretended to be unconscious at which point Hendry gave her mouth-to-mouth.
Hendry then sped off demanding the victim’s mobile phone which he smashed with a hammer before throwing it from the car. He then used the hammer to hit her on her ankle and wrists, causing bruising. As they drove back to Wellington he stopped in Upper Hutt yelling at the victim and striking her in the face so hard her teeth became loose.
Grabbing a deodorant can he again struck her in the face, which began to bleed. Insisting he didn’t want blood in his car, he held a t-shirt to her face, before stopping at a stream and making her wash herself.
The following morning the victim became aware her mother had reported her missing and she told Hendry she wanted to leave. She went outside Hendry’s apartment hoping he wouldn’t hurt her. Hendry lifted her by the throat and threw her on the bed and with the pressure on her neck she saw black spots in her eyes. Hendry yelled at her and punched her in the body, winding her.
Hendry’s lawyer Marty Robinson sought discounts for his client’s background, mental health, remorse and guilty plea.
But Crown prosecutor Morgan Gavey said there was little link between Hendry’s background and the offending and past rehabilitation efforts had failed.
The Crown said Hendry’s letters of remorse tended to the court were in direct conflict with the contents in the presentence report, but Robinson said the comments in the report had been misunderstood, because his client had difficulty hearing and understanding what the probation officer was saying.
The report said Hendry presented as someone who was kind and caring who wanted to help, but who only got into trouble because of others.
“Your criminal history suggests otherwise,” Judge Peter Hobbs said, noting that this offending occurred while Hendry was on release conditions for a serious assault in 2020.
Judge Hobbs said he had difficulty concluding that Hendry’s early life and schooling had contributed to his offending.
He acknowledged while there had been challenges with bullying at school, parental discipline and the loss of a parent, these weren’t unusual challenges for a young person to face.
But Judge Hobbs said Hendry’s mental health had suffered as a result of being a victim of several serious assaults. A clinical psychologist’s report found Hendry qualified for a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It was that diagnosis which the psychologist thought may have been a factor in the 2020 offending.
Judge Hobbs adopted a starting point of four years and nine months jail, but taking into account Hendry’s guilty pleas and matters relating to Hendry’s PTSD he reduced that to a final sentence of 3 years and five months jail. Hendry was also ordered to pay $800 reparation and a protection order was imposed.
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media advisor at the Ministry of Justice.
