Girl, 16, was violently attacked by Zeepra Lemoto as she walked home from Richmond hair salon

A mother heard her daughter screaming on the phone as she was attacked while walking home from a hair salon. Photo / 123RF

No one knows why she did it, and Zeepra Erna Lemoto is still not saying.

But yesterday, she was sentenced in the Nelson District Court for a crime that was played out while the victim was on the phone to her mother.

“I was attacked from behind. Mum heard me screaming down the phone,” the victim said in a statement, read in court on her behalf by Crown prosecutor, Joshua Vuataki.

She was left too afraid to go back to school or get her hair done in a salon for the year that followed the attack on a winter’s night in 2022.

It was just before 8pm on June 1 when the 16-year-old was walking home from the salon along Queen St in Richmond. She was still dressed in her school uniform and was talking on the phone to her mother when without warning, Lemoto attacked her.

Crown prosecutor Joshua Vuataki said the lack of motivation for the crime had made the case particularly interesting. Photo / Tracy Neal

Lemoto didn’t know the victim but the attack in which she pushed the young girl to the ground, kicked her and stomped on her, was captured on CCTV.

Two men who were nearby and heard the attack rushed to help her.

She was left terrified and confused with a broken finger, grazes and bruises on her left leg, and was taken to hospital.

Lemoto told police during questioning over why she had assaulted the student that “it’s complicated”.

She repeated the same in court, but wouldn’t elaborate.

Afterwards, the student was too afraid to walk to and from school, except if accompanied by her sister. It became harder to focus on her schoolwork and was instantly afraid of anyone coming up behind her and touching her.

The victim ended up doing online schooling from home.

“It was just after I’d had my hair done and I couldn’t go back to a salon for a year,” she said in her victim impact statement.

Lemoto, 48, tried to argue with Judge Tony Zohrab about what was fair and just in the case in which she has represented herself.

She stood glumly in the dock, trying to interject as she was sentenced to 12 months’ intensive supervision and 80 hours of community work on a charge of assault with intent to injure.

Judge Zohrab described what she did as “totally random and unexpected in a public place”.

“The victim is young and was very scared as a result of what happened,” he said.

Lemoto had initially denied a more serious assault charge but changed her plea as the trial was under way.

The victim said the thought of the court case in the lead-up to the trial had been “really scary”, and that she had been put under a lot of pressure.

“I would think to myself, ‘What happens if she sees me at court and attacks me again’?

“I had just wanted it to be over but I was made to keep re-thinking it.”

Vuataki said the lack of motivation or clarity on why Lemoto had acted the way she did, had made the case particularly interesting.

She had no criminal history and appeared not to know the victim. CCTV footage did not reveal that the victim had done anything to antagonise Lemoto.

Lemoto, in defending herself, claimed she’d had no information from the Crown before today’s sentencing and alleged the summary of facts was wrong.

“I’ve arrived here today to go backwards,” she told the court.

Judge Zohrab said no one had any understanding of why she did it: “There’s this vacuum of explanation over why it happened.”

Lemoto appeared confused over the trial process and said the reason for it was so that the case could be “heard justly”.

Judge Zohrab reminded her that the trial had been set to go, the jury had been empanelled, and the opening remarks had been made when Lemoto pleaded guilty and a conviction was entered.

Lemoto then didn’t turn up for an earlier sentencing date, or community probation.

“The prosecution makes it sound like I should be overseen but I don’t think I need to be,” she told the court.

Judge Zohrab said the victim had now moved on enough to look forward to her future but remained curious about why she was attacked.

Lemoto appeared more conciliatory, as she agreed to Judge Zohrab’s suggestion that she make a $500 emotional harm payment to the victim.

Lemoto was also encouraged to engage in the supervision process.

“I’m concerned that you get some help so we can work out what happened, and to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Judge Zohrab said.

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.