At Strickland’s sentencing in the Christchurch District Court today, Judge Gerard Lynch said the mother, an early childhood teacher, described the ordeal as the most terrifying experience of her life.
She thought her family were going to die.
The family didn’t know Strickland and had recently settled into the Christchurch home when he burst in at about 8pm on March 28 this year.
Judge Lynch said the family had hoped to make a new beginning in the home, but now couldn’t bear to stay there because of the attack.
The father had spoken of a level of violence that he would never forget; he, too, thought his family were going to die.
It was something that had stayed with the father every day since the attack, Judge Lynch said.
The family had suffered physical and emotional trauma.
The summary of facts showed Strickland was banging on the door and threatening to kill them before smashing the glass door with a brick.
He climbed through and made his way up the stairs to the second floor and smashed a TV in the lounge.
The victims heard yelling, banging and crashing, followed by thudding sounds of someone coming up the stairs to the third level.
Strickland smashed a wooden door to the bedroom where they were holed up, as they braced the door shut by holding it and leaning into it.
He smashed a hole in the door, and the force dislocated the father’s shoulder.
He continued to make threats as he looked at the family through the hole in the door.
Strickland was found by police inside the house a short time later.
Judge Lynch said police didn’t know why Strickland had gone to the property and that he didn’t know the family.
Strickland said he had attended a memorial service earlier that day and had “let his guard drop” by drinking.
He was on a sentence of intensive supervision at the time.
Just 10 minutes before the attack, he had been driving and crashed into another vehicle, continuing to drive through a red light as the driver of the other vehicle followed and pulled in behind him at a food outlet in central Christchurch.
Strickland, who wore a Black Power hoodie, got out of his car and verbally abused the motorist several times before getting back into the car and driving off.
Judge Lynch said Strickland had a long criminal history and remained entrenched within the gang.
He sentenced Strickland to three years and six months in jail on charges of injuring with reckless disregard, threatening to kill, burglary, prohibited display of gang insignia in a public place and driving in a dangerous manner.
Strickland was also disqualified from driving for nine months.
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the past 16 years. Most recently, he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.
