'Bored' violent robber jailed for eight years

A 21-year-old will spend eight years in jail for a raft of crimes, including an a violent attack on a 67-yaer-old woman. Photo / Thinkstock

A "bored" Northland man who tied up a 67-year-old woman inside her house, then gagged and repeatedly assaulted her before driving away in her car has been sentenced to nearly nine years in jail.

Dwayne Steen, 21, earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated robbery, three of burglary, one of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and one of kidnapping.

He was sentenced in the Whangarei District Court yesterday to eight and a half years on all charges.

Judge Duncan Harvey said Steen got into an "inexplicable explosion of violent behaviour" against two older women - the other was aged 59 - in Te Kopuru and Dargaville in the middle of last year.

In the first incident Steen and a 14-year-old boy, armed with a crowbar and a hammer, went to a dairy in Dargaville where they forced their way in and confronted a 59-year-old woman.

Judge Harvey said they made off with $269 in cash.

Steen and his accomplice committed the most serious offence in a Te Kopuru house on June 12, the judge said.

Armed with a hammer, the pair broke into the house and approached a 67-year-old woman as she lay on a couch.

The woman was dragged through a hall, assaulted, and as she got up was again attacked, before Steen tied her legs and gagged her with a tea-towel.

"You struck her purely on a gratuitous basis," Judge Harvey said.

"She wasn't struggling, she wasn't stopping you and when she got up, you hit her again."

When arrested, Steen said he committed the offences because he was bored.

Crown prosecutor Davis Stevens said Steen's behaviour was surprising, given that he had no previous convictions. Mr Stevens said violence was inherent in all the charges and that both victims were vulnerable.

Steen's lawyer, Julie Young, said he lacked skills to deal with difficulties in life.

His accomplice is being dealt with by the Youth Court.