Raglan woman Te Hina Rehua-Whare, 27, refused to reverse off the one-lane Wainui Rd bridge despite being in the wrong. Image / Google maps
A Raglan woman orchestrated a horrific attack on a group of local teenagers after a righteous road-rage interaction on the seaside town’s one-lane bridge.
And while Te Hina Rehua-Whare may not have laid a hand on the five victims, a judge has laid the full blame of the assault at her feet.
At sentencing in the Hamilton District Court this week, Judge Philip Crayton told the mother-of-two that the attack would never have happened had she not involved her partner, 25-year-old Kaedyn James Broughton Lee Wiremu Barber-Salvation.
The pair were both sentenced to home detention for their roles, although two others, who also unleashed punches and kicks on the victims, have still not been identified.
Judge Crayton said it was pure “luck” that nobody died that night.
The somewhat unusual incident began after the group of teenagers decided to drive to the Ngarunui Beach lookout at 9.30pm on Friday, August 9, last year.
At the same time, Rehua-Whare, 27, was heading to pick her partner up from Primrose St.
After the victims got a third of the way along the bridge, Rehua-Whare drove her Toyota on to the bridge from the southwest, ignoring the give-way rule.
Both vehicles stopped in the middle of the bridge.
Two of the victims, who were in the backseat, got out of the car to talk with Rehua-Whare about who had the right of way, and asked her to reverse off.
“Get f*****, I’m not moving,” she replied.
One of the victims said they were legally in the right, but she replied, “Get f*****, you don’t know who you are messing with.”
The argument was witnessed by a person walking on the bridge, who also told Rehua-Whare to reverse off the bridge.
Rehua-Whare refused, forcing the victims instead to reverse off the bridge, along with other road users.
She then drove off the bridge, and the victims headed to the Ngarunui Beach car park.
Shortly afterwards, Rehua-Whare arrived and parked behind the victims’ car before leaving again.
At 9.42pm, she sent a series of texts to her partner saying, “I think I’ve found them” and “I’m at the reserve”.
Having seen the same vehicle, and with the main gate to the car park being due to close, the victims became concerned and decided to leave.
However, by the time they got to the gate it was shut and Rehua-Whare was parked in such a way that it blocked them from leaving.
The victims got out of their car and had another chat with Rehua-Whare, who told them they had to stay there until morning.
They then tried to drive through the gate after unwrapping a chain, but Rehua-Whare cut off their path using her vehicle and forced them on to the grass verge.
The victims drove around the corner on to Ngarunui Beach Rd only to find their way blocked by another vehicle. Rehua-Whare drove up behind them.
Three large men got out of the second car, including Barber-Salvation, who approached them aggressively before hitting the bonnet of the vehicle with his fist and yelling something.
He opened the driver’s door and asked, “Are you the ones on the one-way bridge?” before punching the driver with a closed fist.
The victim lost consciousness, causing him to slump forward in the car, which then started rolling forward down the hill.
However, Barber-Salvation kept hitting him on the back of the head, as a rear-seat passenger yelled at him to stop because he had a previous head injury.
“I don’t give a f***,” Barber-Salvation replied, and as he continued punching the victim.
Barber-Salvation then demanded that another victim get out. He complied, putting his hands up, and was punched in the back of the head.
After walking him over to his partner to apologise, Barber-Salvation punched him to the jaw, causing the victim to fall down a bank.
Rehua-Whare then told her partner the victims had a video recording of the earlier incident, so Barber-Salvation walked a victim back to his car and demanded he delete it.
At this time, one of the unknown men opened a car door and punched another victim multiple times in the face and head, while the other opened the other door, and said, “Who do you think you are doing this shit in our town?”
He then demanded “all your cash, drugs, everything”, before throwing a bottle of soft drink at him, and saying, “I will teach you not to do that shit around here”, and bashing him more than 10 times.
He then held the roof and kicked and stomped the teen victim multiple times. The victim eventually lost his vision.
As Barber-Salvation left, he returned to the driver’s door and said, “If any of you tell the police, I will find you and kill you.”
The victims were too scared to call police, but a concerned mother rang them the following day.
The victims suffered multiple injuries, including concussion, a broken eye socket, bruising, and pain.
When spoken to by police, Rehua-Whare said she was “in a mood” before she left home that night and admitted refusing to move off the bridge, but denied any involvement in the attack.
Rehua-Whare’s counsel, Mark Sturm, said his client had struggled to accept some of the charges because she didn’t take part in any of the violence.
However, he had explained her role in the bridge confrontation and then texting her partner.
“She does contend that the young victims were a little more confrontational than the prosecution presented its case but be that as it may ... the reality is, the defendant as the older person ... had the option of just letting it go and moving on and she didn’t and that’s led to the charges that she faces and indeed charges that her partner faces.”
Neither his client nor Barber-Salvation had appeared in court before.
Sturm said her offending “appears to be an aberration, out of character”.
She was highly thought of not just by her work colleagues and whānau but the wider community, he said.
Judge Crayton accepted that, were it not for his partner, Barber-Salvation would never have got involved.
On charges of injuring with intent to injure, assault with intent to injure, threatening to kill, and intentional damage, he was sentenced to 11 months’ home detention.
Barber-Salvation also offered $8000 in emotional harm reparation, which the judge ordered be paid.
Judge Crayton said Rehua-Whare put herself “in a situation where you couldn’t take a breath”.
“From what should have been a non-event became a nuclear option.
“The only fortune ... is that nobody died.
“One of those young men had a significant head injury. It’s luck that he didn’t die; another one was knocked unconscious.”
She was sentenced to nine months’ home detention.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.