Karaka samurai sword attack: Darryn Clarke to be sentenced for road rage assault

Darryn Clarke attacked a pedestrian with a samurai sword (not the one pictured) in a fit of "stupid road rage" after the stranger tapped his Tesla as he drove by. Photo / Thinkstock

Warning: Graphic content

A Tesla driver who used a samurai sword to lash out at a dog walker who had motioned for him to slow down in a rural South Auckland neighbourhood - causing a bone-deep neck gash before leaving the stranger bleeding heavily in a ditch, immobilised and too injured even to call for help - has blamed “stupid road rage” for the horrific attack.

Darryn Clarke, 43, is set to be sentenced tomorrow in Manukau District Court after having pleaded guilty to the assault, which his own family witnessed as they sat inside the Tesla on the afternoon of January 5 this year.

The victim, a 55-year-old who can’t be identified by name due to court-ordered suppression, was described by police that day only as having been taken to hospital in a critical condition. But most details, including the defendant’s name, were also suppressed until recently.

“He suffered a deep laceration to his neck, down to the bone but without hitting the spinal cord,” police noted in the agreed summary of facts for the case. “The complainant’s jaw was broken, and his facial muscles and nerves were severed...

“The sword also cleaved a large chunk of flesh and bone from the complainant’s left shoulder, which required emergency surgery and skin grafts. The complainant also suffered severed tendons in his left hand.”

He still suffers facial drooping and a speech impediment as a result of the facial injuries.

Court documents state the victim was walking his dog along Batty Rd in Karaka at about 3pm that day when Clarke approached in the Tesla with his wife and children as passengers.

“As the defendant approached ... the complainant stood in the middle of the lane and indicated for the defendant to slow down,” documents state. “The defendant slowed down and drove around the complainant. The complainant tapped the roof of the defendant’s car with his palm as it passed.”

That’s when Clarke stopped the car, grabbed the samurai sword and approached the victim.

The sword, described in court documents as a replica, was sheathed as Clarke swung it in a downward diagonal motion. But the sheath shattered on impact and the blade cut his ear, neck, shoulder and hand.

“The complainant was knocked to the ground by the force of the strike and fell into a ditch alongside the road,” court documents state. “The defendant got back into his vehicle and drove away.”

In intense pain, the victim ran to a nearby house to ask for help but no one responded on the intercom. He was bleeding so heavily that he could not unlock his cellphone to call for help, police said.

But in a stroke of good fortune amid the grave situation, his son was driving home from work minutes later and saw that something wasn’t right on the side of the road.

“He noticed his father lying wounded in a ditch, with his dog nearby,” according to the agreed summary of facts. “He applied emergency first aid to slow the bleeding and called an ambulance. Police attended shortly thereafter.”

Clarke was arrested the next day and charged with injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, which carries a maximum punishment of 14 years’ imprisonment.

Court documents do not indicate how police linked the attack to Clarke, but they do indicate the defendant didn’t deny his involvement in the incident.

“He stated he struck the complainant with the sword inside its sheath, and that he only used 50 per cent force,” documents state. “He described the incident as ‘stupid road rage’.”

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.