Stabbing sentence upheld

Maurice Temaaki Wairau's sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeal in a decision released yesterday. Photo / File

A former Ikaroa-Rawhiti candidate has failed in his appeal against a sentence of nine years and four months in jail, for a knife attack on his ex-partner's boyfriend.

Maurice Temaaki Wairau, 38, torched his house in Palmerston North, before travelling to the man's Hastings address and stabbing him as he slept. Wairau, an independent candidate in the Ikaroa-Rawhiti byelection in June 2013, represented himself in the appeal, heard in Wellington on May 14.

His sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeal in a decision released yesterday, stemming from an appeal against sentences for aggravated burglary, arson and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The trial was told Wairau was upset after his partner of about 11 years began seeing another man, and eventually moved out with their three children to live with him in Hastings. He was trying to arrange with his partner the return of his children, aged 10, 9 and 6 at the time of the offending.

Shortly after midnight on December 20, the unemployed Wairau woke his neighbour and persuaded him to drive him to Hastings. He packed a bag, in which he placed a large kitchen knife, with a blade about 19cm-long. While the neighbour waited for him outside his house, he lit a fire inside, came out and they drove away. The house, rented from Housing New Zealand, received extensive damage.

When they arrived in Hastings, Wairau told his neighbour he had "torched his house". The neighbour dropped him in central Hastings and hurried back to Palmerston North to check on his own house.

Wairau then walked more than 2km to the home of his ex-partner's boyfriend and kicked down the locked front door. He found the couple sleeping in a bedroom and stabbed the social worker with the knife. The victim said he woke with a "searing pain" in his chest, and also fielded punches and kicks. He required emergency surgery, and the blade of the knife had narrowly missed a major artery.

In yesterday's decision, the court said Wairau had had the opportunity reconsider what to do about his children. "Plainly other options existed apart from stabbing the man now sheltering them," the decision said.