Grey Lynn dairy attack: Lookout guilty of aggravated wounding

Gita Patel and her son Siddartha were both stabbed while minding their family business, the Hylite Dairy, in Grey Lynn in June 2018.

By Anneke Smith for RNZ

A man accused of being a lookout for a violent dairy robbery in Auckland last year has been found guilty.

Gita Patel and her son Siddartha were stabbed while minding their family business, Hylite Dairy, in Grey Lynn in June last year.

Ngatama James Kaienua stood trial in the High Court at Auckland earlier this month after pleading not guilty to aggravated wounding and assault with intent to rob.

Ngatama Kaienua was outside the dairy acting as a lookout. Photo / RNZ

The Crown argued the 28-year-old Ōtāhuhu man kept watch while a 16-year-old, who cannot be identified, went inside the dairy with a kitchen knife.

It said while Kaienua didn't stab the mother and son he was criminally responsible by aiding and abetting the teenager, who is before the Youth Court.

This morning Justice Gault delivered guilty verdicts for both charges.

Blood on the floor after a violent robbery at a dairy in Grey Lynn. Photo / Supplied via Police

The verdicts were met with tears from the defendant and his family, who sat in the public gallery throughout the week-long judge-alone trial.

Kaienua, represented by Shane Tait and Johnathan Hudson, gave evidence in his own defence at the trial.

He maintained the stabbing came as a total surprise and explained his calm demeanour, as captured by CCTV cameras, on a fear of being wrongly implicated in the crime.

Justice Gault convicted Kaienua on both charges this morning. The court heard this will be the South Auckland man's third strike; meaning the judge has to impose the maximum penalty of 14 years' imprisonment without parole unless it would be manifestly unjust.

Kaienua will be sentenced on October 11.

- RNZ