Anaru Yardley has been sent to prison after stabbing a man who told him to move his vehicle. (Not the knife used in the incident.) Photo / 123rf
A homeless man living in his car stabbed a man twice after being told to “bugger off” from the property’s front lawn, saying he could “do whatever he wanted”.
It was around 9am on October 7 when the victim, who was inside his Glenpark Ave flat in New Plymouth, heard loud noises outside.
He went to investigate and found Anaru Yardley sitting in the front seat of a vehicle parked partially on his front lawn.
According to the summary of facts, at the time, Yardley had been living out of his vehicle, parked at the front of the flat next to the victim’s.
The victim told Yardley that he was not welcome and asked him to leave.
Yardley got out of his vehicle “in an aggressive manner” and said he could do whatever he wanted, the New Plymouth District Court heard today.
The 28-year-old approached the victim, who was standing in the porch area of his property.
Then, without warning, Yardley produced a knife and thrust it at the victim, stabbing him in the shoulder.
The victim instinctively put his hand up to his shoulder to protect himself, and Yardley stabbed the same area again, this time getting the man’s middle finger.
While Yardley then left the scene and phoned his probation officer, an ambulance was called and took the victim to the hospital.
He suffered a deep wound to his shoulder, which had gone to the bone, and a deep wound to his finger.
In court, defence lawyer Nathan Bourke acknowledged it was an unprovoked attack.
He submitted it was a “hot-headed and angry” response by Yardley, who was stressed about his living situation and was being told to “essentially bugger off”.
Bourke said the attack was not premeditated, and questioned whether it was “extreme violence”, as stated by police, submitting it was two strikes and not gratuitously long.
He also questioned the seriousness of the victim’s injuries within the realm of a wounding charge.
“I’m not minimising it for this gentleman, but he got some stitches and went home [from hospital] the same day,” Bourke submitted.
“It’s very far from life-threatening; it wasn’t surgery, it was sutures.
“He was prescribed some paracetamol and some amoxicillin.”
Bourke said his client’s background included family ties to the Mongrel Mob, which he said Yardley has tried to distance himself from following the birth of a child, and methamphetamine addiction issues.
He said Yardley had shown “a bit” of remorse and insight, and he had phoned his probation officer after the attack to alert them to what he had done, which Bourke said was hopeful.
Police prosecutor Lewis Sutton submitted the offending was premeditated, pointing out Yardley had taken the knife from his car before approaching the victim.
While Sutton made written submissions describing the attack as “extreme violence” and resulting in serious injury, he conceded in court that he may have been “a little bit hard”.
“My point there was that after the first stab, he had a second go,” Sutton said, while also acknowledging the injuries were puncture wounds.
However, he said the offending still featured the use of a knife and was unwarranted.
Speaking directly to Yardley, Judge Turitea Bolstad asked if he was fed up with being in and out of prison.
“Yeah, nah, I am,” Yardley responded.
“You need to do something different, because you’re still young.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“I hear what Mr Bourke was saying, you know, you were homeless at the time and all of that, but you need to change all of that ‘cos if you don’t, those doors are just going to keep on swinging your way.”
Yardley said he was looking to make positive changes.
“You can appreciate that I hear that all the time, eh?” the judge responded.
“But I’m going to do it, you know. That’s the difference,” Yardley said.
“I hope so, I hope for your sake. ‘Cos you know things could have turned to custard quite quickly,” the judge said.
“You could have stabbed him in an artery, and you could have been up on a murder charge, with no future prospects at all. So I hope what you tell me is genuine, ‘cos you can’t respond in that way.”
In sentencing Yardley, Judge Bolstad said his criminal history included violence against family members and police, and a pre-sentence report noted his offending had escalated, and he was a high-risk of reoffending.
She accepted that in the recent attack, Yardley had acted impulsively and no premeditation was involved.
The victim’s injuries were not of a serious nature and the attack did not involve extreme violence, the judge found.
She took a starting point of 2.5 years’ imprisonment before applying credit for Yardley’s guilty plea, remorse, willingness to address offending behaviour and background issues.
An uplift was then applied for Yardley’s previous convictions before he was sentenced to 22 months’ imprisonment on the admitted charge of wounding with intent to injure.
He was granted leave to apply for home detention, and a first strike warning was issued.
Yardley was also convicted and discharged for a breach of intensive supervision.
Tara Shaskey is an assistant editor and reporter for the Open Justice team. She joined NZME in 2022 and has worked as a journalist since 2014.