Farm attack victim woken at gunpoint

The Swedish nephew of Peter and Maggie Bentley expected to be shot during a terrifying home invasion at the couple's farm east of Te Puke last Labour Weekend.

In written evidence before a depositions hearing at the Rotorua District Court this week, 22-year-old Sture Bengtsson said he was asleep at about 6am when he was woken suddenly by yelling and glass breaking.

A man ran into the room, pointed a gun at him and said: "Where's your Mama?"

"He then said he was going to shoot me," said Mr Bengtsson.

The masked intruder forced the young man downstairs at gunpoint.

In the hallway he heard a loud gunshot and wondered who had been shot and "if I was going to be next".

After a struggle, Mr Bengtsson seized the sawn-off gun that was aimed at him, ran away and hid in bushes.

From his hiding place he heard someone running and voices. Soon after, a vehicle left, and after waiting about 10 minutes, the Swedish visitor returned to the house and checked the gun he had wrestled from the intruder.

It had a round of ammunition in the chamber and more in the magazine.

After a two-day depositions hearing Justices of the Peace Ron Hope and Philip Aiken yesterday found there was sufficient evidence to put Desmond Mahanga Eru, 22, unemployed, of Rotorua, on trial for aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary. He was remanded on continued bail until April 27 for a trial date.

He is one of four men accused of being involved in the home invasion and an earlier burglary at the Bentley's home. Two others have pleaded guilty and another is yet to enter a plea.

Eru is alleged to have told others how to evade the Bentley's security system, and that the Rotorua businessman would be a good person to rob on a Saturday morning when he carried cash to pay his weekend workers.

In written evidence Mr Bentley, 54, said he had employed Eru for a couple of years and Eru had worked at his property laying a cobbled driveway.

Mr Bentley told of a burglary in mid-August while he and his wife were away. About $12,000 worth of goods were taken, including a shotgun.

On the Saturday morning of Labour Weekend, Mr Bentley told of being threatened at gunpoint and bashed with his own crowbar and a knife. He was left with a broken nose, a fractured eye socket, a stab wound to the arm, bleeding on the brain and numerous severe bruises.

In her written evidence, Margaret Bentley told of escaping with a cordless telephone and dialling 111 while she hid in bushes listening to the attack on her husband.
Her call to the police, who kept her on the line for over an hour before help arrived, later became part of an inquiry into the emergency response system.