A teenager who narrowly missed hitting another girl’s spine as she stabbed her multiple times with a steak knife has been sentenced to home detention.
The now-19-year-old handed herself in to police even though the victim had not laid a complaint, and pleaded guilty at her first appearance, something Judge Peter Hobbs said was “unusual” in his 14 years of experience.
D’Zanae Matehe Townsend appeared in the Hutt Valley District Court this afternoon for sentencing on a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The incident arose during a group brawl in Lower Hutt after Matehe-Townsend had tried multiple times to free her sister, who the victim had pinned to the ground by her hair.
Judge Hobbs said Matehe-Townsend, then 18, was drinking with her sister and friends in a hotel room in late March when the victim’s group began loitering outside, threatening to throw bottles at their room and suggesting they come outside for a fight.
The groups began fighting, but things took a turn when the victim pulled Matehe-Townsend’s sister to the ground.
The defendant tried to get the victim off her sister, punching her and yelling at her. She went back into the room and grabbed a steak knife, Judge Hobbs said.
After coming back outside, she tried again to free her sister, and when that did not work, she stabbed the victim five times in her back and twice in her arm. The fight then broke up.
In a statement, the victim said she had just, on the day of sentencing, had her final hospital check-up for her stab wounds.
She said she had healed well and that most of her wounds were superficial, but that one had nicked her kidney and another nearly hit her spine.
“I initially suffered from flashbacks, where the events of the attack were relived in my head over and over,” she said.
She had been “trying not to think about ‘what if’”, and had struggled to leave the house alone since the incident.
Defence lawyer Chris Nicholls called the incident “a tragedy” for both parties.
“It’s life-changing, it’s happened, and I’m hoping for both the victim and the defendant they can work their way through this – it’s probably going to take some time – and come out of it as functioning, happy adults, and they can be able to put this behind them.”
He argued Matehe-Townsend should only receive a sentence of supervision, saying the conviction was enough of a punishment, as well as the fact she would carry the weight of what she had done for the rest of her life.
“One really does have to stand back and see what happened here. We’re dealing with an 18-year-old and 17-year-old who both acted not in a good way on that night, and I’m sure in ways they both regret and that they will learn from.
“Who are we all to judge about how we would have reacted in that particular situation if it was our sibling that was on the ground in the street being pinned down? She tried her best to stop it,” he said.
“Her whole life has changed as a result of decisions that have been made in split seconds ... What she did is an error of judgement.”
Judge Hobbs said the pre-sentence report showed Matehe-Townsend acted out of “fear and concern” for her sister, who suffers from dissociative seizures.
He said a supervision-only sentence was “simply out of the question” for such a serious offence, but did allow a 50% discount for her guilty plea, remorse, lack of previous convictions, youth, and other personal circumstances.
He sentenced Matehe-Townsend to 10 months on home detention.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.