Wellington man smashed in head with brick while restraining thief a ‘shadow’ of his former self

• Brian Fowler, 70, suffered a severe head injury in December 2022 after confronting a thief.
• The 18-year-old offender, who attacked Fowler with a brick, will be sentenced today.
• Fowler’s recovery continues, but ongoing health challenges mean he’s ‘a shadow’ of what he used to be.

A Wellington man critically wounded when a thief he was restraining smashed him in the head with a brick says he is a “shadow” of himself more than a year later.

In his first interview since suffering a brutal head injury in the driveway of his Southgate home, Brian Fowler described his fight with the teenaged offender – saying it left him with ongoing health issues and personality changes.

The teen will be sentenced in the Wellington District Court later today, and has also applied for permanent name suppression, which NZME is opposing.

Brian Fowler, 70, with the ute that the teen was breaking into when Fowler intervened. Photo / Melissa Nightingale

Fowler, 70, 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 18-year-old thief rummaged through the interior.

“I went out and grabbed him and had a stern word with him, shall we say,” he told the Herald.

The pair grappled for a while, ending up on the ground a couple of times.

“It was pretty much full-on,” he said. “It was an unedifying spectacle.”

Fowler, who has previously served in the army and studied martial arts, said he was rough with the teen but didn’t hurt him beyond “manhandling” him.

“I was careful not to injure him, he just got a bit knocked around.”

He said the teen offered to give him back the 90 cents he’d stolen from the car if Fowler would let him go.

“I said it doesn’t work like that.”

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.”

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.

Brian Fowler has had to give up his work as a concrete-cutter and demolition contractor. Photo / Melissa Nightingale

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 a mental injury 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”.

The teen has pleaded guilty to aggravated wounding, and will be sentenced this afternoon.

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.