A Napier man who will serve a full 12 years and nine months jail sentence imposed for attacks which included sexual violating an 87-year-old woman blamed it on "the Government" for allowing sales of synthetic cannabis.
But it was one of many varying claims made by 31-year-old Hugh Hemi Tuatua Tareha since he attacked her and a 72-year-old woman both in their Hastings homes late in 2013.
The variations were noted by Justice Kit Toogood Q.C. during the sentencing yesterday in the High Court in Napier, when Tareha was told that as a "Stage 2" offence under three-strikes violent offending legislation he would serve the full term without parole.
Tareha had previously been sent to jail for the robbery of another woman in her home in 2011, and on November 6, 2013, having previously been released, he accepted a variation of conditions, forbidding him to use then-legal synthetic drugs.
It was the next morning that having consumed alcohol and synthetic cannabis he set-off on a mid-morning neighbourhood walk, during which he saw the 87-year-old at her letterbox and decided to sexually violate her.