Two youths who joined another teenager who pointed a gun at a woman and threatened to shoot in a confrontation at the woman's Napier home five months ago were each sentenced to 160 hours' community work when they appeared in the Napier District Court yesterday.
Laddie Paora Teapatu Tamati and Gary
Ford Gerbes, who both recently turned 17, were appearing for sentence on charges of unlawful assembly and intimidation which were initiated in the Youth Court after the incidents at a property in Lamb Terrace, Onekawa, on December 27 last year.
In the incident, a woman went to her door and had the gun held to her head by a youth who said: "You're dead."
Judge Richard Watson said yesterday he accepted the two in court were part of the "make-weight" group with another youth who had carried the gun, and who was younger and was being dealt-with by the Youth Court.
He told Gerbes: "You may think you're brave and tough by wanting to go to prison, but prison officers can't be there all the time. I can give you examples of people being quite violently assaulted, and when that is not detected, the people who have been assaulted are not going to complain.
"At 17," he said, "that's not a place where you want to be."
