Hayden Williams appears in Manukau District Court for sentencing after seriously injuring multiple people at an Auckland bus stop while trying to hit his partner with his car. Photo / Jason Dorday
Following a day of office Christmas party drinking on Waiheke Island, Hayden Williams got into a prolonged argument with his sober driver girlfriend in East Auckland that resulted in her exiting his car, walking to a nearby bus stop and calling her mother for a ride home.
But Williams, “seeing red”, wouldn’t let it go. He got behind the wheel of the Volkswagen Golf himself and intentionally ploughed into the bus stop bench, hitting the woman.
He fled but then returned, revving the engine before hitting four bystanders who had gathered around the injured woman in an attempt to help her.
A fifth Good Samaritan, aged 78, was able to jump out of the way of the vehicle but suffered a stroke 20 minutes later.
He died less than a week later.
Williams, 24, appeared in Manukau District Court for sentencing on Friday after pleading guilty earlier this year to driving and assault offences.
This is the first time he can be named after having received suppression shortly after his arrest. It also marks the first time what happened that day can be reported in detail.
Williams would later claim he didn’t remember anything about the crash other than him having been “f***ing mad” and “losing it”, court documents state.
“I frankly don’t accept that,” Judge Jonathan Moses told him this week, pointing out that he not only used his vehicle as a weapon twice but then tried to run away before other bystanders chased him down.
He ordered a sentence of three years and nine months’ imprisonment.
Williams and his then-partner had attended the Christmas do at 11am on December 10, 2023, and went to a bar after retrieving his car from the Half Moon Bay ferry terminal around 3pm.
While at the bar, the couple began arguing and continued to do so as the woman drove them away from the bar around 5.30pm.
“During the argument, the defendant pulled on the Volkswagen vehicle’s handbrake, causing the vehicle to lose control,” according to the summary of facts Williams agreed to.
In response, his partner pulled over on Prince Regent Drive, distraught and calling her mother. She told Williams to leave or she would call the police, then walked to the bus stop and did just that.
That’s when Williams got into the driver’s seat and aimed the car at the bus stop bench, smashing the seat and hitting his partner in the hip. She screamed as she was knocked to the ground, documents state.
After he left the scene, graduate student Samuel Devoy, 22, and his longtime partner, 21-year-old nurse Sarah Beuth, drove by and stopped to help the woman.
Others also started to gather at the scene, including respected engineer Wallace McQuarrie, a 78-year-old who had just returned to his neighbouring home after his weekly trip to the grocery store.
When Williams returned in the car, he crossed the centre line and swerved towards his partner at speed.
“The defendant mounted the kerb and drove into the complainants where they gathered around the first complainant,” court documents state.
He first hit the SUV driven by the other young couple, then hit Devoy, who “went over the bonnet of the Volkswagen vehicle, hit the windscreen and flopped over the Volkswagen vehicle on to the concrete where he lay unresponsive”.
Devoy’s partner saw the vehicle coming as she kneeled over the first victim and tried to sprint away but was hit in the leg, causing a broken ankle that required multiple surgeries and months of rehab.
Two other victims who lived nearby were also hit in the leg as they fled but suffered only bruising.
“The defendant then reversed the vehicle at speed in the direction of the sixth complainant,” court documents state, referring to the 78-year-old. “The sixth complainant had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit.”
The Volkswagen was damaged so extensively it was no longer driveable after Williams hit a second parked vehicle. His attempt to flee on foot was short-lived.
A breath alcohol test later returned a reading of 787mcg of alcohol per litre of breath, almost twice the legal limit.
McQuarrie was taken to Auckland Hospital by ambulance after suffering the stroke, while Devoy and Beuth were taken to Middlemore Hospital.
“The clinical opinion was that the bleed [to McQuarrie’s brain] was due to his underlying high blood pressure,” court documents state. “The post-mortem was not able to conclusively link the actions of the defendant to the sixth complainant’s death.”
Because of that, Williams was never charged with homicide.
But it’s hardly surprising that McQuarrie’s only child, who gave an emotional victim impact statement in court, does link his death to Williams’ crimes, the judge noted.
Tracey Limond described her father as having been “the most dignified of men” before his final days of deterioration at hospital.
He was an engineer specialising in dam safety who had travelled the world for work and served the same company for more than 50 years.
“He had plans, big plans,” she said of her father, explaining that he wanted to write a family history and become a grandparent. “The defendant is responsible for taking away the luxury of retirement for my father.
“It infuriates me my dad had to pay the ultimate price for helping another out of the goodness of his heart. For this to happen to such a wonderful, kind man is heartbreaking.”
It was a sentiment shared by Williams’ other victims and by the judge.
Beuth said she’s now hesitant to help strangers in need, which “goes against my core values and nursing ethics”.
“Our faith in humanity has been deeply shaken,” her parents later said in a joint victim impact statement, describing her life-changing injuries while helping another as a “cruel irony”.
She and Devoy had hoped to save money and work overseas, but everything the young couple aspired for was put on hold and remains so two years later, the parents said.
Of those who survived the incident, Devoy suffered the most extreme and longest-lasting injuries. He was unconscious for about 10 minutes and was covered in blood, leading his girlfriend to initially fear he had died.
He had been a straight-A student on scholarship at the University of Otago, where he was completing his master’s degree in finance. He was set to start a fulltime job at BNZ in the new year.
But he couldn’t start the job for months because of the injuries and has had to go on a Work and Income benefit. Despite repeated efforts, he can no longer finish his master’s degree thesis, he said. His scholarship was lost.
Devoy now needs glasses and suffers from fatigue daily. He rarely goes out with friends any more, he said, because the noise creates a hangover that lasts days. And his love of sport has been ruined, with doctors advising him he should never play football again because of the risk of another head knock.
He was unable to stand or walk for a week after the incident and couldn’t take a shower on his own for a month, he said, adding that he was picking glass out of his arms for months. He suffered a broken tooth in the attack, which later died and required root canal treatment.
He’s also accumulated considerable out-of-pocket medical expenses in an effort to get his life back to normal after ACC support dried up, he said.
He thanked BNZ for being so accommodating throughout his recovery, but he’s now on unpaid leave trying to focus on treatment.
“This has been incredibly frustrating,” he said. “My life has changed drastically... almost killed by someone’s stupidity.”
Before the incident, his parents later said, Devoy “didn’t know how to fail”. Now, they said, he struggles with anxiousness as he adjusts to new self-expectations.
Judge Moses singled out the young couple as he announced the sentence, describing them as “clearly outstanding young people”.
“You should be proud,” he said. “Communities exist and thrive when people do reach out to help each other.”
Their “loss of faith”, he said, was one of the sad things about the case, albeit understandable in the circumstances.
Williams faced up to 14 years’ imprisonment for a single charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm relating to Devoy. He also pleaded guilty to four counts of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, punishable by up to 10 years, and one count of assault with a weapon, carrying a five-year maximum sentence.
In addition, he admitted to drink-driving and failure to stop and check if anyone was injured.
Crown prosecutor Bernadette Vaili acknowledged the judge had already agreed during a sentence indication hearing to a starting point sentence of eight years’ imprisonment, with 35% in combined reductions for Williams’ guilty pleas, youth and lack of any prior criminal history.
But she asked the judge to consider deterrence and denunciation – as well as the fact Williams’ poor choices that day “changed the trajectory of the lives of many people” – before considering any further discounts.
Vaili pointed out the defendant sought an additional reduction for remorse but didn’t seem at all remorseful towards his ex-partner and made no mention of the man who died.
Defence lawyer Kyle Macneil said his client will never forgive himself for what he did, but he also repeatedly characterised Williams’ relationship with the first victim as “toxic”.
He suggested his client had been subjected to domestic abuse, having been hit by the victim just before the incident.
It was a suggestion prosecutors objected to, noting it wasn’t in the summary of facts and that Williams’ ex wasn’t in court to defend such accusations. The judge agreed to disregard it.
Macneil blamed his client’s age and naivety for bottling up his emotions in an unhealthy relationship until he exploded.
“He thought he found the love of his life and was besotted – she was his queen,” the lawyer said, describing Williams as hard-working, caring and kind, and a “peacemaker”.
“He is certainly not the monster who came out that day,” he said.
Judge Moses said he wouldn’t comment on “the rights or wrongs of that relationship”.
“Whatever the situation was, nothing justified what you did – either to her or to the others that day,” he said.
The judge allowed an additional 10% reduction for remorse, explaining it could have been higher had Williams been able to compensate for the significant financial loss his actions caused his victims.
Williams rubbed his brow and muttered, “F***”, under his breath as the judge announced the prison sentence.
“You said that you’re genuinely sorry for what you did and I accept that,” the judge said as the hearing ended, adding that the best way to demonstrate his remorse would be to never offend again and make the most of his time in prison.
“The sentence doesn’t have to define who you are. It’s up to you, through your own actions, to make sure that isn’t the case.”
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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