He took a knife along with him. What did he do that for? Was it to whittle a stick? Cut up an apple?
Those points should be reasons to jail him longer.
But no, the scales of justice are so heavily weighted on to the side of criminals nowadays, decent people are just there to not only be victims, but victims who pay for criminals to be able to exist.
One opinion from the defence team was that the teen used the knife in self defence because Mr Kumar picked up a pole after the teens entered the dairy.
Fortunately the judge thought so too.
One opinion from defence lawyer Maria Pecotic is for the Youth Court to deal with cases involving anyone up to 20.
Ms Pecotic reckons that there is very little in the way of rehabilitation services and support for those between 17 and 20.
I have always had an issue with different treatment for young offenders when they have committed serious adult crimes such as rape or unlawful killing.
They have hurt or killed someone and to my mind it doesn't matter how old they are they should face the consequences as adults.
And Youth Court really should be only for first or second-time offenders. If you are a habitual criminal by the age of 14 then it should be accepted you ain't going to be saved and it's the adult courts for you.
I can hear the howls of the bleeding hearts as I am typing this, but those do-gooders out there need to realise that not everyone can be saved, or wants to be, and the rest of us don't need to put up with them or their crimes.
Hooray, the terribly tip-top-secret talks about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement have ended without getting the go-ahead.
As someone who gets nervous around secrecy - particularly from governments and councils - this whole lockdown of details about the TPPA has been a worry and now there is a bit of breathing space to, hopefully, find out more about what is at stake.
The talks finished because there wasn't an agreement over dairy, automotive and intellectual property issues.
My objection to the "confidentiality" is that I don't want a government secretly signing my future away without me having a say in the matter.
I'm sure millions of Kiwis would agree.
And I'm sure they'd like to say to the Government if this deal is so good for us then why not let us in on it so we can be excited about all the benefits that are about to come this way.
One of the fears of the anti-TPPA lobby is that New Zealand will lose sovereignty over decisions because the Government can be sued if it introduces laws that are seen by US corporations as reducing their business.
Hopefully there is nothing in the TPPA that allows cigarette manufacturers to do that.
Or opens the way for US medical manufacturers to force New Zealand into using expensive medicines or stop Pharmac from getting the best deals possible for our public health funding.
And just imagine if oil exploration or mining companies could make New Zealand open up protected conservation areas so they can dig and drill wherever they liked or else face legal action.
Doesn't sound like it is worth the risk to me.
-richard@richardmoore.com
Richard Moore is an award-winning Western Bay journalist and photographer.
