KEY POINTS:
The gang-member boyfriend of Paula Bennett's daughter used a fence paling to attack a man, who suffered a broken jaw and a 10cm head gash, the Weekend Herald can reveal.
Court documents obtained yesterday show the full extent of the attack, which resulted in Viliami Halaholo being jailed for 4 years.
The 23-year-old, reportedly a member of the Thugs of Canal street gang at the time, is the boyfriend of the Social Development Minister's 21-year-old daughter Ana and the father of her 2-year-old granddaughter Tiara-Lee.
Ms Bennett was forced to apologise to the Prime Minister this month after it was revealed she had failed to mention letters she wrote to a judge and the Parole Board while she was an Opposition MP.
The letters were in support of Halaholo being bailed to her address before he was sentenced in June 2007.
According to Judge Patrick Treston's sentencing notes, Halaholo's victim was left with a permanent scar to his head after suffering a 10cm cut that needed 30 stitches.
He also received a broken jaw during the violent attack, which happened in Wingate St, Avondale, on April 1, 2005.
Halaholo and a group of friends were walking down the road when they saw a party at a house. They went inside and demanded cigarettes and alcohol but were escorted outside as it was a private party.
Once outside, they threw a rock through a window of the house. Partygoers, who had come outside after hearing bottles and glass being broken, followed Halaholo's group up the street.
Judge Treston said Halaholo and some of his companions armed themselves with fence palings and attacked the partygoers.
The victim was struck at least 10 times, with the summary of facts indicating Halaholo inflicted at least one of these blows, causing the gash.
Halaholo claimed he acted in self- defence but a jury rejected this and found him guilty of demanding with menaces and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Judge Treston said violence was not unknown to Halaholo, who had several previous convictions including assaulting a person with a blunt instrument and disorderly behaviour.
"Clearly the way you were dealt with in relation to your earlier offences involving violence were not sufficient to deter you from reacting in this way again when fuelled with alcohol."
In deciding what sentence to hand down, Judge Treston referred to a letter written by Ms Bennett, saying she had described Halaholo as "being a person with promise who has developed of recent times and has made significant and consistent changes in your life".
Said the judge: "Although you had earlier made poor decisions you are now making better ones and the family that you have will be a stabilising factor."
But that family was not enough, he said, to keep Halaholo from jail.
