At the time of the latest incident, Cooper was in prison serving a sentence of six years and eight months for hitting his mother and 16-year-old brother with a hammer in 2022, breaking the boy’s skull and knocking his mother out.
Cooper remains ‘high risk’
At his last Parole Board hearing, in May last year, he was described as still posing a high risk, despite undergoing 54 one-on-one sessions with a psychologist while in prison.
In the Napier District Court on Friday, Judge Gordon Matenga imposed another four-year prison sentence on Cooper, to be served cumulatively on his current sentence, which has a statutory end date of September 1, 2028.
A Crown summary of facts said Cooper and his victim were both inmates in prison unit 4A, which contains about 40 cells surrounding a courtyard.
On April 30 last year, the inmates were let out of their cells for breakfast and a “kit change”, in which they exchange their clothes and blankets for clean gear.
During the kit change, Cooper was bullied by another inmate who was trying to goad him into a fight.
He went to his cell and armed himself with two home-made “shanks” by breaking a razor and a metal fan, and strapping the shanks to his hands with a cleaning cloth and a T-shirt.
He walked across the courtyard and past a picnic table where the victim was sitting. Video footage recorded an exchange between them.
Cooper then punched the man four times with the shanks still fixed to his hand.
The victim fought back, grabbing Cooper around the body and forcing him to the ground.
They fought on the ground until separated by other inmates and prison officers.
The victim was taken to Hastings Hospital to have his facial wounds stitched and treated.
In explanation, Cooper said that he had armed himself for protection from another inmate and could not get the shanks off his hands when he got into a physical confrontation with the victim.
Cooper bullied in unit
“The whole reason for you arming yourself the way you did was the bullying you were receiving in the unit,” Judge Matenga said to Cooper.
The judge said it was a “serious” physical injury but the victim had also suffered an ongoing psychological injury.
The judge said the man’s victim impact statement recorded that he did not feel safe, and had trouble sleeping at night, which required medication.
He also had a scar on his face, and his children did not want to know him.
“He thinks it’s because they don’t want to see him with the scar that has caused him to look different to them,” Judge Matenga said.
The judge declined to set a minimum period of imprisonment, meaning Cooper’s release will be determined by the Parole Board.
The board last saw Cooper just after the latest assault.
“Before the Board is a relatively young man who is incarcerated for repeat and very serious violent offending,” the Parole Board report said.
“The recent reported incident and other aspects of his criminal history indicate prison is no barrier to violence occurring.”
In his 2022 offending, Cooper struck his teenage brother with a hammer so hard that he split his forehead and fractured his skull.
He then drove the hammer into the back of their 52-year-old mother’s head as she tried to intervene, splitting her scalp.
When she got up and asked Cooper to hand over the hammer, he hit her multiple times, knocking her out.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.
