Accused tried to help victim

The man accused of an assault that left the victim in hospital for over a week was found not guilty at Napier District Court yesterday.

Amit Malik, lawyer for the accused Agatupu Samu, told the court that his client was in fact a hero and a compassionate man who had done all he could to help by calling the police when he found the victim beaten and left in a pool of his own blood.

As a result of the assault the victim sustained broken ribs, a broken finger, a ruptured spleen - which was later removed, a punctured lung and a puncture wound to his hip.

The Judge described his injuries as "horrific and life threatening".

Samu met the victim on the evening of June 28 last year near the Sunken Gardens on Marine Parade. The victim was sitting on the seafront drinking.

Mr Malik said Samu began chatting with the victim, offered him a bed for the night as he was new to town and tried to call a taxi for him on multiple occasions.

The court heard Samu left the victim, who was by this stage intoxicated, for a third time to go and call a taxi before returning to find he had been assaulted.

Mr Malik said Samu witnessed two men running away from the scene and had then provided detailed descriptions of the men to police officers who subsequently dealt with him.

He said Samu had been consistent in his descriptions of the people leaving the scene in the hope of assisting with police enquiries.

The court heard that the context of the evening meant Samu could not have assaulted the victim.

"He did all he could to look after a lonely, drunk stranger. His actions, his interactions, tell a story of a compassionate man not a violent one."

Samu was found by police covered in the victim's blood on the night the assault took place. It was this fact that Crown Prosecutor Clayton Walker used as a basis for his case that Samu had in fact carried out the assault himself.

Mr Walker said it was impossible to tell when or in what circumstances the blood, some of which was spattered over the shoes and jeans of Samu, had been transferred.

The defence said the blood had ended up on Samu after he returned to find the beaten victim and tried to help him.

The jury deliberated for two hours before delivering their verdict.