18 months jail for work party punch

Erika Akuhata has been sentenced to 18 months jail for a punch at a Christmas party which seriously injured another man. Photo / file

A man who was sentenced to 18 months jail for a punch that seriously injured another man outside a work Christmas party in Napier was at the time still serving a sentence for previous violence.

That was revealed by Judge Geoff Rea in a Napier District Court sentencing yesterday, three weeks after a jury found 47-year-old Hastings man Erika Akuhata guilty of injuring by an unlawful act.

The judge said the jury rejected Akuhata's claims that he punched Peter Mitchell in self-defence.

He agreed that according to the evidence, Akuhata struck out as Mr Mitchell tried to stop him chasing another man who had been involved in another assault moments earlier.

As Mr Mitchell fell to the ground, cracking his head on the concrete, Akuhata resumed the pursuit of the other man who fled to get help. Mr Mitchell received a brain injury that Judge Rea said would affect him for the rest of his life.

All three were with a group drinking in the Taradale Club in Greenmeadows after attending a Christmas function for staff of construction and engineering company Downer on the night of December 17 last year. Akuhata was employed by a firm contracting to the company.

Judge Rea said it was clear Akuhata resorted to violence to deal with issues, apparently more so when alcohol was involved, and in the last 10 years had been in court eight times for violent offending.

Charges in the past include injuring with intent to injure, assaults with weapons, and in 2003 a series of charges to which he pleaded not guilty including assaulting a police officer and injuring a police dog which he hit with a padlock from a gate.

At the time of the assault nine months ago, Akuhata was still on a sentence of intensive supervision for three charges relating to other violent offending.

Crown prosecutor Jo Rielly accepted defence counsel Eric Forster's contention the consequences for Mr Mitchell were not intended but Judge Rea said Akuhata had "essentially" ruined Mr Mitchell's life.