Machete-wielding Christchurch tenant allegedly charges neighbour, hospitalises another

A Christchurch man has charged a neighbour with a machete, threatening to cleave his head open. Photo / Thinkstock

A Christchurch man allegedly attacked one of his neighbours, breaking their ribs and putting them in hospital, after earlier threatening another with a machete, the Tenancy Tribunal has found.

The man’s alleged actions in April and May landed him in prison and led to him being evicted from his Hillmorton community housing unit.

Tribunal adjudicator K Koller granted landlord Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust permission to boot the man out of his unit, saying “there was a threat to assault” and “most likely to me there was also an assault”.

Koller heard evidence that another tenant living in the housing complex went to the man’s unit on April 22 because of loud music being played.

The man responded by threatening the other tenant.

“He charged towards me with a machete and said he would cleave my head open,” the witness told the tribunal.

Police were called and the man was arrested before later being bailed back to the same housing complex, the tribunal heard.

The witness gave the tribunal a letter from Victim Support detailing how the machete threat had left him “wary” and he was “taking extra precautions when at home”.

The man remained at the complex despite his threatening behaviour with the machete. Nine days later, on May 1, he was allegedly involved in a “more serious incident”, attacking a second neighbour.

“The neighbour suffered from broken ribs and bruising and spent a night in hospital,” the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust told the tribunal.

The alleged attack left that neighbour “too traumatised” to give evidence to the tribunal as a witness, Koller was told.

The man was arrested after the incident and remanded in prison where he was still located at the time of the May 12 tribunal hearing, the landlord said.

The man didn’t attend the hearing.

Koller said it was “most likely” there had been an assault on May 1 and that there was “a serious risk of further assaults and threats”.

This made it appropriate to end the man’s tenancy immediately.

The tribunal has a different standard of proof than the criminal courts and was assessing the allegations before it to determine whether or not it should end the tenancy.

Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust sought to have its name suppressed as part of the hearing.

The group has been a registered community housing provider since 2016 after taking ownership of $50 million of Christchurch City Council buildings and land.

Koller said while a successful landlord would typically be granted suppression, she wasn’t willing to grant suppression in this instance.

That’s because they are “a social housing provider and there is public interest in social housing”, Koller said.

Ben Leahy is an Auckland-based senior journalist. He has worked as a journalist for more than a decade in India, Australia and New Zealand.