By CATHERINE MASTERS
The man who bashed Auckland lawyer John Timmins was a kickboxer and a repeat offender who committed his crime while "wasted" on drugs and alcohol.
Joshua Wiremu McIsaac, 28, of Onehunga, showed little emotion in the High Court at Auckland yesterday as Justice Peter Salmon sentenced him to seven years' jail.
Very little information on what led to the attack has emerged and some of the evidence continued to be suppressed yesterday.
McIsaac was on parole for another violent offence when he committed the crime and he had a history of offending while on parole.
Justice Salmon was told that neither man could remember the events in which Mr Timmins was badly beaten and left lying on the ground, his face caked in blood, at an industrial estate in Onehunga in October last year.
McIsaac had been placed at the scene through what his lawyer described as a "random DNA hit on the databank".
Justice Salmon gave McIsaac seven years for injuring Mr Timmins with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and four years for unlawfully taking his BMW, to be served concurrently.
The jail term would have been two years longer but for a "generous" deduction because McIsaac had pleaded guilty to both counts.
He told of McIsaac's long list of offending - 30 convictions and 12 terms of imprisonment, 10 of which were for violence.
In 1992, he was jailed for 16 months for throwing a two-year-old on the floor and punching him twice in the forehead.
In 1997, he got four years' jail for punching a female several times in the face and kicking her in the stomach.
The judge noted that McIsaac had said he was a kickboxer who "could take on the New Zealand champ".
Mr Timmins suffered contusion to his frontal lobes and head fractures and was still suffering cognitive impairment, concentration difficulties, problems in organising and planning tasks, susceptibility to fatigue, and depression.
He now faced the possibility of having to abandon a profession in which he had achieved success.
The attack had also had serious consequences for his wife and children, and the family's home may have to be sold to give them money to live, Justice Salmon said.
"You, Mr McIsaac, have a shocking record."
Included in a list of aggravating features was that he had left Mr Timmins lying where he attacked him "without any concern on your part apparently for whether he lived or died".
The only mitigating factors were the guilty pleas which had spared Mr Timmins the ordeal of a jury trial. If a jury trial had been held there was a strong possibility McIsaac would have been sentenced to preventive detention.
Outside the court, McIsaac's mother, who would not give her name, apologised to the Timmins family. She said she knew what it was like to be assaulted and had tried to bring her children "up right ... I don't approve of what he did."
In court the Crown Solicitor for Auckland, Simon Moore, said circumstances surrounding the attack were likely to remain unknown but it appeared to have been unprovoked and possibly motivated by the desire to take Mr Timmins' luxury car.
Mr Timmins had no recollection of events because of his injuries, and McIsaac had told police he could not remember because he was so wasted on drugs and alcohol.
Defence lawyer Mark Edgar said two "eternal" questions remained unanswered - how Mr Timmins got there and what happened.
To say the attack was unprovoked was speculative.
Lawyer's basher gets seven years jail
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.