A 59-year-old with mental and physical disabilities suffered regular beatings at the hands of his controlling flatmate, who would order him around and send him to his room without food.
Lionel Peat endured more than a year of merciless, drawn-out bashings from Tamati Teariki Matene Wilson-Tipa until, on December 2last year, he was beaten to death after an evening of hanging Christmas decorations and watching television.
Wilson-Tipa appeared on Friday in the High Court at New Plymouth, where he pleaded guilty to the murder of Peat, and violence charges relating to both Peat and another victim.
The 11-page Crown summary of facts stated that, about two years ago, Wilson-Tipa, 34, was struggling to find a place to live when he met Peat.
While he lived independently, Peat suffered from a chronic mental health illness, for which he was medicated, and physical ailments. He was regarded as vulnerable.
A short time after the two met, Wilson-Tipa moved into Peat’s home in Hāwera, South Taranaki.
During this period, Wilson-Tipa was friendly with a woman he had met on a dating site. He introduced her to Peat and the three would often socialise.
But as these relationships developed, Wilson-Tipa became controlling towards both of them.
They were sent to run errands for him, such as buying food and alcohol. When he became angry with Peat, he would send him to his room, sometimes without food.
He would be told to stay in his room overnight and through the next day until Wilson-Tipa allowed him to come out, the summary stated.
When Peat and the woman, who has an intellectual disability, did not do what Wilson-Tipa demanded, he became violent.
The summary of facts recorded many attacks on the pair from May 2021 to December 2022, including when he was drunk and repeatedly punched the woman after becoming angry at what she was wearing.
In another incident, the three were at the woman’s home, also in Hāwera, when a drunk Wilson-Tipa became angry at Peat for “letting him down”. He delivered several blows to Peat’s face, rib area and slapped his ears.
Wilson-Tipa appeared in the High Court at New Plymouth on Friday.
While Peat repeatedly apologised, the woman asked Wilson-Tipa to stop the assault. But he continued, grabbed a knife and held it to Peat’s throat.
After an hour, the attack came to an end, Wilson-Tipa walked away and went back to drinking.
Peat was left bloodied on the floor, in pain and trying to get up. Wilson-Tipa sent the woman to “clean him up”.
In October 2021, a new flatmate moved into the home where Peat and Wilson-Tipa were living.
He told police that, during the three months he lived at the flat, there was not a day when Peat was not yelled at or hit by Wilson-Tipa.
Peat was threatened, punched and kicked about the body and head and would often be cowering on the ground, scared of Wilson-Tipa.
In July 2022, Peat had emergency surgery for a ruptured spleen. After his discharge from hospital, he was recovering at home when Wilson-Tipa became annoyed with him and punched and kicked his stitches.
On December 2 last year, Peat and Wilson-Tipa were at the woman’s home when Wilson-Tipa, who had been drinking, became angry at Peat and began punching his head, face and chest.
Shortly after the assault, Peat left and went for a walk.
When he returned at 10pm, Wilson-Tipa, furious that he had left, kicked, punched and “rag-dolled” him for a long period across the house.
The woman, who described hearing “cracking sounds that sounded like an eggshell breaking”, said Peat was begging Wilson-Tipa to stop and not to kill him.
Eventually, Peat passed out but the assault continued.
Later, Wilson-Tipa and the woman tried to wake Peat by sitting him up and pouring water over him but he remained unresponsive.
The woman phoned an ambulance and, when paramedics arrived, they pronounced Peat dead.
While Wilson-Tipa initially denied any violence against the victims, in court he pleaded guilty to charges of murder, assault with intent to injure, and representative charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and injuring with intent to injure.
Defence lawyer Paul Keegan said he would be seeking a cultural and psychiatric report for his client.
Justice Francis Cooke entered the convictions and remanded Wilson-Tipa back into custody ahead of his sentencing on March 22.
Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff where she covered crime and justice, arts and entertainment and Māori issues.
