SAVAGE ASSAULT: Milton Haira has pleaded guilty to bashing Martinborough volunteer firefighter Peter Fisher. PHOTO/FILE
SAVAGE ASSAULT: Milton Haira has pleaded guilty to bashing Martinborough volunteer firefighter Peter Fisher. PHOTO/FILE
A Martinborough man who savagely assaulted a volunteer firefighter has pleaded guilty to the attack and will appear for sentencing in Wellington District Court next month.
On Monday, the day the trial was due to start, Milton Haira vacated an earlier not guilty plea and pleaded guilty to one chargeof wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to Peter Fisher.
Mr Fisher was badly beaten in October 2012 after he went to a house on Broadway St, Martinborough, to help remove an unwanted male guest from a gathering of mainly teenage girls.
He suffered brain damage and fractures to his eye sockets, nose, cheeks and mouth and was later told he had died twice and was resuscitated at the scene.
Mr Fisher was taken to Wellington Hospital where he was admitted to the intensive care unit and kept in an induced coma for three days.
He later underwent facial reconstruction which left him with titanium plates under both eyes and his top lip.
Mr Fisher spent weeks doing intensive physiotherapy for up to three hours every day, hoping to win back more movement and strength in his right arm and leg. Haira will be sentenced in Wellington District Court on May 22.
