Man jailed for tyre iron attack at a Taranaki beach over unpaid drug debt

Simon Ruck brutally attacked a man with a tyre iron at Back Beach carpark in New Plymouth. Photo / Tara Shaskey

Looking to recoup a drug debt, Simon Ruck tracked his target to a beach and then smashed his face with a tyre iron, leaving the man with a fractured skull and missing teeth that are still yet to be replaced.

But on Friday, Ruck wiped away tears and farewelled his supporters as he was taken by guards to begin a jail sentence of four years and eight months for the brutal attack he is adamant he did not commit.

The 32-year-old defended charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and intentional damage at a trial in June this year that concluded with the jury finding him guilty of both counts.

While now convicted of the December 3, 2020, offending that occurred at the Back Beach carpark in New Plymouth, Ruck maintains to have been in Palmerston North attending a birthday party at the time.

However, the proven facts state the victim and his female friend were parked at the beach about 10.45pm on the evening of the attack.

Ruck soon arrived and was armed with a tyre iron.

He approached the victim and demanded money he believed the man owed him from previous drug dealings.

Simon Ruck appeared in New Plymouth District Court on Friday. Photo / Tara Shaskey

When the victim refused to pay up, Ruck smashed two windows of the man's vehicle.

He then turned his attention to the man, swinging the tyre iron several times at his head.

One of the strokes connected with the victim's face and another with his mouth.

The man lost four teeth in the attack and chipped another, in addition to suffering a fractured skull.

In his victim impact statement, written last month, he said his teeth were yet to be fixed and he was still traumatised by what had occurred.

At Ruck's sentencing in New Plymouth District Court today, Crown prosecutor Rebekah Hicklin expressed concern for the offender's "total lack of acceptance of responsibility".

She said his failure to acknowledge his offending impacted his rehabilitative prospects.

But defence lawyer Julian Hannam said it was Ruck's right to maintain his innocence and while there can't be rehabilitation attached to the offending - because it's not accepted - there is residual trauma from his childhood and current addiction issues that he could still receive, and wanted, assistance with.

Hannam asked Judge Gregory Hikaka to apply a discount to accommodate those background issues and his overall need for rehabilitation.

Judge Hikaka said a 12-page cultural report canvassing Ruck's background made for "very sad reading".

It included childhood abuse before he was taken into state care. One placement was "far from ideal", the judge said, explaining the family was well known for drug and violent offending.

That placement ended when the matriarch asked Ruck, then 13, to "take the rap" for her son.

As a result of those influences, Ruck went from being bullied to becoming a bully and moved into "brute force violence" and drug dealing.

He also went on to struggle with methamphetamine and gambling addictions.

While Judge Hikaka said it was hard to assess Ruck's rehabilitation options due to his continued denial of the recent attack, he accepted Ruck was motivated to reform and that there was a connection between his background and the offending.

After a credit of 15 per cent was applied, the Judge handed down the lengthy lag and wished a weeping Ruck well.