Teen sentenced to six years in jail for hammer attack in Whangārei

The defendants dragged the unconscious victim to a park in Otāngarei before one final assault. Photo / Michael Cunningham

As a teenager viciously attacked a man with a hammer, continuing even after he lay unconscious on the ground, it was his cousin who had the presence of mind to prevent what could have ended in a homicide.

“Stop, you’re going to kill him,” the cousin warned the now-19-year-old, who has been sentenced to six years in prison.

Lawrence Wiki-Newman appeared for sentencing in the Whangārei District Court today on one charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm following an incident in November 2023.

A summary of facts read in court said the victim had borrowed a car from a family member of Wiki-Newman’s cousin, 22-year-old Savay Barnes-Manuel, which had not been returned.

Wiki-Newman and his cousin drove to an address in Otāngarei, Whangārei, and when the victim saw them he fled on foot along Jack St.

The pair chased him in the vehicle Barnes-Manuel was driving along a grass verge and eventually exited the vehicle.

Wiki-Newman was armed with a claw hammer and a glass bottle and the pair began punching the man in the face as he fell to his knees.

They continued to assault the victim while he was on his knees and Wiki-Newman kicked him repeatedly as he fell to the ground.

Wiki-Newman conitinued to stomp on the victim’s head, body and legs and struck him multiple times with the claw-hammer.

The victim became unconscious but the assault continued until Barnes-Manuel pushed Wiki-Newman away in an attempt to stop the violent assault.

But Wiki-Newman came in again and stomped on the victim’s head while Barnes-Manuel kicked him in the head one more time.

The pair then dragged the unconscious victim to the park and placed him in the recovery position.

Once there, Wiki-Newman continued to stomp on his head until Barnes-Manuel saw the man was seriously in trouble.

“Stop, you’re gonna kill him,” Barnes-Manuel told Wiki-Newman as he stood over the victim, preventing his cousin from any further attack.

Judge Tomlinson said the teen was lucky he was not looking at a sentence for homicide.

The victim, who refused to engage with the police or Crown, was rendered unconscious with a skull fracture, brain bleed, laceration to the head and a broken arm.

“If it wasn’t for Savay Barnes-Manuel, you would be sitting in the High Court looking at a homicide,” Judge Gene Tomlinson told the defendant.

Barnes-Manuel has been sentenced to four years and nine months for his role.

Wiki-Newman’s upbringing was discussed during sentencing.

The court heard that despite growing up in an unstable home where he was taught violence solved disputes, Wiki-Newman had no prior criminal record.

Wiki-Newman’s lawyer Mathew Ridgley submitted given his upbringing and his use of methamphetamine as a coping mechanism, his path to offending was inevitable.

However, Judge Tomlinson did not accept that.

“I’ve got a man here who, despite everything, hasn’t offended, so it’s not inevitable. Is it a case of good character and an error? Or a case of inevitability?

“I wouldn’t accept that submission from you because human beings are complex,” Judge Tomlinson said to Ridgley.

Judge Tomlinson said he took no pleasure in sending young men to prison but hoped the fact the sentence had an end date as opposed to one he could have faced for homicide would bring some form of comfort.

“It is so ridiculously serious, so animalistic. In what possible world is this okay over a car?

“I must sentence you for the bad that you did.”

Wiki-Newman was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.