Brian Fowler was critically wounded when he tried to restrain a teen who was breaking into his ute in his driveway in Southgate, Wellington in December 2022. Photo / Melissa Nightingale
Brian Fowler was critically wounded when he tried to restrain a teen who was breaking into his ute in his driveway in Southgate, Wellington in December 2022. Photo / Melissa Nightingale
A Wellington teenager who smashed a man in the head with a brick has been sentenced - and will get to keep his name permanently suppressed
The teen, who pleaded guilty to aggravated wounding and drugs related charges, was sentenced in the Wellington District Court today to six months home detention and ordered to pay $700 reparation.
He said the incident has left him with ongoing health issues and personality changes.
Crown prosecutor Jess MacPherson said the attack was serious offending against a member of the public strongly opposed to the teen receiving name suppression.
The teen’s lawyer, Val Nisbet, said the scuffle and fight had serious consequences acknowledged by the young man and his mother. Both had written letters of apology, expressing their concern and upset.
Nisbet sought permanent name suppression, saying naming his client would affect the progress the teenager has made.
“I cannot see the benefit to the public or to Mr Fowler of publication of the defendant’s name,” he said.
But he urged the judge to impose a sentence of community detention, saying the teen needed to work and that was something he and his family wanted to do.
“He’s young, very young and he’s had a tough time,” Nisbet said.
Judge Bruce Davidson said the offending was serious and had occurred shortly after the teen turned 18.
The second set of charges related to drug offending around nine months after the incident with Mr Fowler and resulted in him spending a brief period in custody, before being released on bail.
But the judge also made it clear the teen has had difficulties.
“It’s clear your teenage years have been blighted by mental health and drug issues and these are difficult issues for anyone to confront, let alone anyone as young as you,” he said.
Judge Davidson said he initially had a starting point of 15 months in jail, but because of the teen’s age, commitment to rehabilitation and guilty pleas he decided against a sentence of imprisonment.
“I have no doubt for you that prison would be a retrograde step, but home detention needs to be imposed,” he said, adding a sentence of community detention wouldn’t reflect the seriousness of the offending.
He sentenced the teen to six months home detention on the aggravated wounding charge and six months home detention on the drug offending charges, served concurrently meaning the total sentence is six months home detention. The $700 reparation included $200 for Fowler’s garden seat and $500 insurance excess.
Judge Davidson permanently suppressed the teen’s name citing his age and fragile mental health.
Asked what he thought of the sentence, Fowler said: “I’m not outraged by it”.
“He needed to face the consequences of his actions. He has been given some inconvenience and I just want him to make the best of his circumstances and never offend again. But I’m not confident of that.”
‘It was pretty much full-on’
The 69-year-old was injured in December 2022 after hearing a noise in his driveway about 2.30am.
He crept outside and saw the light on in his ute, with a pair of legs protruding as the teenaged thief rummaged through the interior.
“I went out and grabbed him and had a stern word with him, shall we say,” he told NZME.
The pair grappled for a while, ending up on the ground a couple of times.
Fowler intended to detain the teen until police arrived, but as they scuffled, the teen grabbed a brick in the darkness and smashed it into the side of Fowler’s head, causing him to black out briefly.
“I came to, to find his hand in my mouth . . . It was extraordinary. The guy wasn’t an experienced fighter, but I am.”
Brian Fowler was critically wounded when he tried to restrain a teen who was breaking into his ute in his driveway in Southgate, Wellington in December 2022. Photo / Melissa Nightingale
Fowler said he “sorted him out and picked him up and threw him on the wife’s bench seat”. Then, with a “captive audience”, he “gave him a piece of my mind”.
“He decided he’s not interested in hearing any more from me . . . he just slipped out from underneath me. He was young, agile and fast, too fast for me.”
The teen disappeared into Fowler’s “jungle” of a section, and police arrived shortly after.
The teen was bitten by police dogs during the arrest.
While sitting on the couch being assessed by paramedics, Fowler began to feel faint and couldn’t speak. He felt himself tipping slowly sideways, but the paramedics were able to catch him before he fell over. He then started having multiple seizures.
He continued to have seizures in hospital, with his blood pressure dropping down to 70 over 50, which he said put him in “stroke territory and death territory”.
He also had issues with his heart which he said related to muddled signals from his brain.
He was eventually stabilised, but spent days in hospital before he could be discharged.
A year and a half on from the injury, Fowler said he had improved but his recovery was “not a finished project”.
For a long time he struggled to sleep at night, lying rigid and awake listening for noises outside. “It wasn’t rigid with fear, it was just adrenaline.
“Any noise, I would be up and I would be prowling out around the house with a torch.”
He has had occasional tremors and small seizures at night, which felt as though someone had wrapped a hairnet around his skull and was twisting it tighter. He also felt as though his brain was “mush”, and believes he has post-traumatic stress disorder.
Fowler has had to give up his business as a one-man concrete-cutting and demolition contractor and has lost strength.
“I’m a shadow of what I used to be.”
Meanwhile, he said his therapy team believe he has mental health issues caused by his head injury, which has changed his personality.
Fowler describes himself now as unreasonable and quick to anger, often finding himself ready to physically fight someone over minor issues.
“Whenever something goes wrong, it goes wrong with a snap of my fingers. I just take a dislike to someone and it’s all on and I’ve got my fist balling.”
He had “flare-ups” at times, which could be triggered by incidents such as finding out his attacker was applying for permanent name suppression.
“I’m appalled,” he said, adding he believed being named was “the price you paid” for offending, and that “secrecy wasn’t a valid expectation”.
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 adviser at the Ministry of Justice.
