Man threatened to stab Nelson supermarket worker after being refused alcohol

New World supermarket in central Nelson where a man threatened two staff after his plan to buy alcohol was refused. Photo / Tracy Neal

After being asked to leave a supermarket because he appeared drunk, Antony Paul Delorenzo threatened to “stab a knife in the fat gut” of a staff member.

He had arrived at New World supermarket in Nelson late in the evening on January 24 this year, dragging a road cone under his vehicle as he drove in.

Events that unfolded led to him being arrested and charged initially with threatening to kill, later amended to speaking threatingly plus disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence.

Delorenzo, 55, admitted the charges in the Nelson District Court today and was convicted and ordered to pay $300 emotional harm reparation to each of the two victims.

His lawyer Luke Acland said it was a result of a complete lack of judgement; a “red mist” set in, Delorenzo “got into a row” overdid things and ended up in court.

Judge Garry Barkle said nonetheless it would have been unpleasant for the two staff members involved.

After Delorenzo had walked in at around 9.40pm that night, and placed items in his shopping basket, he was approached by a staff member in the alcohol section who declined to sell him any drink out of concern he was intoxicated.

Delorenzo turned the shopping basket upside down and tipped the contents on the floor.

The staff member reached out to take the shopping basket but Delorenzo pulled it away and held it mid-air in a “baseball bat-like grip”.

A second staff member approached and asked him to leave when Delorenzo walked away and threw the basket into the air, over the staff members and a display aisle in the supermarket.

He was then escorted out of the store by the second staff member but came back, and walked towards the victim who took two steps back.

Delorenzo then approached and said aggressively: “If you call the cops I am going to come back and stab a knife in your fat gut”.

He later told police that was a mistake and that he hadn’t been to that particular supermarket “in years”.

Delorenzo then claimed he hadn’t threatened to stab the staff member, but had said he would “cut that phone out of your hand”.

Judge Barkle acknowledged his lack of previous offending in sentencing him.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.