Recidivist offender David Cossill sentenced after Glenfield, Auckland robbery turns violent

The court was told that David Cossill has recently taken steps to distance himself from fellow gang members and copped a beating because of it. Photo / Supplied

An Auckland man who has spent his entire adult life in and out of jail – including for a 2021 incident in which he fired a gun during a police standoff – told a judge this week that he is finally ready to make a genuine effort at getting his life on track.

David Torquil Cossill, 43, has recently taken steps to distance himself from gang life and copped a beating because of it, the court was told.

Judge Kirsten Lummis was sympathetic, recommending a book that might help keep him motivated.

But Cossill would have to read it in prison, she said as she ordered a four-year sentence for his part in a July 2024 robbery at a North Shore home that went violently pear-shaped.

A co-defendant who wounded two men with repeated machete blows aimed at their heads awaits sentencing later this year.

While Cossill isn’t alleged to have been involved in the bloody attack, it is agreed that he helped plan the robbery inside the suspected drug house and that he provided his co-defendants with a car and a sawn-off double-barrelled shotgun to get the task done.

“I really hope you can do that,” Judge Lummis said on Thursday of Cossill’s expressed desire to live a better life. “You need to keep this positive attitude ...”

But the judge also pointed to Cossill’s more than 200 prior convictions, and the many chances judges have afforded him in the past – some of which left other judges likely regretting their charity after Cossill reoffended within days.

“You, in the Crown’s position, present a considerable ongoing risk to the community,” Judge Lummis noted.

Machete rampage

“Make sure they got tha s*** on them.”

That was the instruction Cossill gave to at least one co-defendant on July 15, 2024, hours before the robbery took place.

Court documents outline how three people arrived at the Glenfield house around midnight - the co-defendant, who would later wield the machete, and two other unidentified men.

Police initially alleged that Cossill was one of the unidentified men at the property, but he insisted throughout the court process that he was not there. He agreed to plead guilty after the summary of facts was amended to indicate that he helped plan the heist but didn’t attend.

David Cossill has been sentenced to prison for helping to plan a robbery at an Auckland home in which two people were attacked with a machete. Photo / Supplied

Under either scenario, however, he was guilty of aggravated robbery, which carries a sentence of up to 14 years’ imprisonment.

Court documents state the three intruders lay in wait at the house until the target, who lived there, returned from walking his dog around 12.20am. The assailants followed the resident inside his home and an argument began over money that was allegedly owed to a co-defendant’s deceased brother-in-law.

The assailants left the house but returned a short time later. Although they already had the gun, one of them grabbed a machete they found at the house.

The violence appears to have started immediately upon their return, but it was instead directed at two men who had been visiting the house – one of whom had laughed while observing the earlier argument.

One of the assailants held the gun to the first victim’s face as he sat on a couch while the other hit him with the machete four or five times in the face and head, according to the summary of facts that Cossill agreed to.

They then turned to a second visitor, also seated on the couch.

That victim raised his hands in an attempt to block the machete blows, but one of the assailants pulled his hooded sweatshirt over his head and dragged him to the floor before resuming the machete attack.

By the time they turned their attention to the person who lived there, who they had initially intended to rob, the man’s wife had called 111 from a neighbouring room.

The man was pushed against a wall and ordered to get down on the floor. The shotgun was pointed at him, while the man with the machete started explaining what he intended to do with the blade.

But when they realised police were on the way, they instead grabbed the man’s house and car keys and fled.

The resident suffered only a cut to his thumb, but his houseguests fared much worse.

The first victim suffered cuts to his finger, chin, neck and eyebrow. The second victim, meanwhile, suffered multiple cuts to his face and a wound to the top of his head deep enough that his scalp was visible, as well as cuts to his lower back, buttock, thumb and knee.

“A bone fragment was removed by medical staff due to the head injuries incurred,” the summary of facts states.

‘Out with a bang’

In the end, the property stolen was “not overly significant”, even though “it was expected that valuable property and cash would be seized”, Judge Lummis noted.

The shotgun sourced by Cossill, she said, was a primary component of the planned heist.

None of the victims provided a victim impact statement.

“But I have absolutely no doubt this incident must have been terrifying for all four people in the house,” the judge added.

“There is no doubt that the offending here was very serious.”

Auckland District Court Judge Kirsten Lummis. Photo / Alex Burton

Had Cossill been one of the principal offenders, the Crown likely would have sought a starting point of 10 to 11 years, prosecutor Jared Lowyim had noted. However, he and defence lawyer George Burns agreed that it should be lower for Cossill.

It was accepted that the machete was an “unknown element” to Cossill, having been picked up at the scene by his co-defendant, the judge said. But she added: “Someone could have easily been killed when a firearm is involved.”

Taking the gun into consideration, Judge Lummis ordered a starting point of five years’ imprisonment before considering uplifts and reductions for personal factors.

The judge ordered a 15% uplift for his prior criminal history, which included 219 convictions. When asked to estimate how much of his life he had spent behind bars, Cossill reckoned it was about 20 years.

“Your history of possession of weapons is very concerning,” Judge Lummis said, briefly noting his 2021 police standoff.

David Cossill told a judge this week that he is finally ready to make a genuine effort at getting his life on track. Photo / Supplied

On that occasion, the police Eagle helicopter had followed him home from a confrontation at a Massey petrol station after he got into an argument with others there and fired a pistol into the air from his car window as he sped off.

Once home, he consumed meth, unaware that police were evacuating his neighbours and calling in the armed offenders squad. A six-hour standoff resulted, during which he at one point fired a gun into the air from his home’s back deck and threatened to kill police.

He was so high at that point that he thought it might be good to “go out with a bang”, the court was later told at his sentencing on that charge.

“I consider you have suffered enough and nobody has given you a chance to address your addictions,” Judge Mary-Beth Sharp said during his July 2022 sentencing for the charge, describing Cossill as “somebody that this country has failed dismally”.

It was a reference to his systematic deprivation during his childhood, both in the care of his recidivist criminal father and in state care.

Judge Sharp ordered 21-and-a-half months’ imprisonment but said he could reapply for home detention if a suitable drug rehab facility was available.

Fresh start

The police standoff case wouldn’t be the first or the last time a judge had tried to give him a chance.

Just 12 days before the robbery took place, Cossill had been standing before another judge in the Waitākere District Court, where he was sentenced for assault with intent to injure and unlawful possession of a firearm. That judge had ordered intensive supervision, based in part on the fact that Cossill had already spent a significant amount of time in custody awaiting the sentencing.

He was again sentenced to supervision five months later, in December 2024, the same day police charged him with the robbery.

But Cossill said this week he has finally had enough of the criminal lifestyle. He told the judge he wants to move away from Auckland and its bad influences, pursuing a “fresh start” while staying with his aunt and niece.

“I’m told you’re making real efforts,” Judge Lummis said. “Going forward, you want to remain offence-free.”

Judge Lummis agreed with her colleagues who had dealt with Cossill in the past that his troubled childhood was partially to blame for his significant methamphetamine addiction and his near-constant cycle in and out of prison.

David Cossill has been sentenced to four years in prison for his part in the attack. Photo / Supplied

She hoped his latest assertion wasn’t just empty words but marked a genuine desire to be there for his children and his grandchildren.

The four-year sentence she settled on reflected two 15% reductions – for his guilty plea and for his background – and an additional 5% reduction for his remorse and efforts to change.

“I wish you the very best of luck with the Parole Board hearing,” Judge Lummis said, noting that Cossill’s release should be considered soon due to the amount of time he spent in jail awaiting the sentencing.

The defendant thanked her as he was escorted back to a holding cell.

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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