Jail for attack with bottle

The family of popular Hawke's Bay entertainer Jon Fletcher is unhappy with the prison sentence handed out to the man who slashed him with a bottle, with Mr Fletcher's wife saying she would prefer "a tree with a noose".
Shaun Anthony Wairau, a 27-year-old Napier man, was yesterday jailed for two years and 10 months for the December 23, 2004 attack on Fletcher at the Westshore Hotel.
Fletcher required emergency surgery after Wairau struck him with a bottle, which shattered and then gashed the side of Fletcher's neck, leaving permanent scarring.
Kinena Fletcher said she would've preferred Wairau be sentenced to "a tree with a noose, and that's the very least". In terms of a prison sentence, she felt four years was the minimum that should have been considered.
Mrs Fletcher said the attack had affected her husband's confidence, and left her and the couple's three children, 20-year-old Dane, Soleil, 15, and Keshia, 12, concerned for him.
"The kids and I worry about him ... and if he's late home, we wonder how things are."
At a court appearance on April 10, Wairau pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding with intent to injure, at which time the court was told of the attack on Mr Fletcher.
According to a summary of facts, Mr Fletcher had been at the hotel with his son, and greeted a woman in the bar with an embrace, to which exception was taken by another man, an associate of Wairau.
That discontent led to a short fight outside, which didn't involve the defendant. After it was over and back in the bar, Wairau struck Mr Fletcher with the bottle.
Mr Fletcher never saw the attack coming, and the result was a severe gash behind one ear.
In the Napier District Court yesterday, Crown prosecutor Nicola Graham noted Wairau's previous convictions on wounding and injuring charges, and asked for a sentencing starting point of three years in prison.
Defence counsel Steve Manning said Wairau had now completely distanced himself from his former life and was leading a life of domesticity.
"To some extent this offending is a reflection of his former life, rather than his current life."
Judge Barry Morris said the results of Wairau's actions were severe.
"A single blow in the context of a pub fight has the most tragic and horrifying consequence for the victim, short of death" he said.
As well as the prison term, Wairau was convicted and discharged for breaching his community work, and an existing sentence of community work was cancelled.
Mrs Fletcher claimed she was later abused outside the court by Wairau's partner and supporters.