Three years for P-fuelled attack

An Auckland teenager, known to use methamphetamine, has been jailed for savagely beating a Japanese student and abandoning him on an Otorohanga farm.

Curtis James Hill, 19, was yesterday sentenced to three years' jail by Hamilton District Court Judge Joanna Maze, who said the community needed to be protected.

Hill had taken pure methamphetamine, or P, before he and a friend stole a car from Papakura on February 4.

Days later, when the car broke down in Otorohanga, they found Japanese student Naoyuki Takaoka using a payphone and asked him for a lift.

They made him stop his car in a remote driveway, beat him and then drove off as their victim dived across the bonnet, clutching the windscreen wiper to stay on.

Mr Takaoka was found by a farmer 4 1/2 hours later, bleeding, bruised and with a broken ankle. He has since returned to Japan.

Hill's lawyer, Kerry Burrows, said his client had been accepted into the Odyssey House drug treatment programme.

But Crown prosecutor Rowan Butler said Hill had discharged himself from another treatment programme less than a fortnight before the incident because he was worried he might "lose it" with a resident.

Hill was sentenced to three years on charges of aggravated wounding, unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, injuring with intent to injure, theft, dangerous driving, failing to stop and driving while disqualified.

- NZPA

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