Napier court: Mongrel Mob's Terrance Berryman loses appeal after Waimarama attack

Terrance Berryman is the captain of the Mongrel Mob's Redcoats chapter in Hawke's Bay.

Mongrel Mob captain Terrance Jordan Berryman must stay in jail after losing an appeal against his sentence for leading a "cowardly" attack by 18 mobsters on a man in his own home.

Berryman was sentenced to 23 months in prison when he appeared in the Napier District Court in January.

The court heard he had organised the December 2019 attack on a Waimarama man who had been involved in a road rage incident with Berryman's father.

The victim suffered serious injuries including a 10cm wound to his scalp, a burst eardrum, a skull fracture, a cerebral haemorrhage described as a traumatic brain injury, bruising and significant pain.

Judge Geoff Rea called the attack "deliberate, calculate, pre-planned" and "cowardly".

Two men described as "foot soldiers", Terika Kiri and George Tyler, received home detention on the same day Berryman was sentenced.

However, Berryman, the leader of the Mongrel Mob's Redcoats chapter in Hawke's Bay, was sentenced to 23 months in prison for injuring with intent, and a concurrent nine-month jail sentence for unlawful assembly.

He appealed his sentence to the High Court on the grounds that Judge Rea made an error in not commuting his sentence to home detention.

A judge may grant home detention, monitored by an electronic anklet, if a prison sentence is shorter than two years.

Berryman's counsel, Scott Jefferson, argued the judge had not imposed the least restrictive sentence appropriate in the circumstances, as required by the Sentencing Act.

He also said too much weight had been attributed to Berryman's role as instigator of the attack.

He said Berryman had displayed an "extraordinary show of remorse" after the event, including at a restorative justice conference. He had made a payment of $1300 for emotional harm.

However, High Court Justice Christine Grice said Judge Rea had made a "considered and principled choice" between prison and home detention, and had differentiated between the leader and followers in the attack in imposing different sentences.

"It is difficult to consider a clearer example of premeditation and planning, exacerbated by the organisation and the fact that the 18-strong contingent mustered by the appellant wore gang regalia or colours," Justice Grice said.

"The assault was extremely serious and played out in the manner the appellant had contemplated. As the judge said, the 'realities of this situation have to be borne in mind'."

She found Judge Rea had made no error in not imposing home detention, and Berryman's prison sentence was not manifestly excessive.