Preventive detention means a prisoner cannot be released before a set term and until they can satisfy the Parole Board they have changed their ways. If the prisoner cannot do the latter, they might not ever get out. If released, they can be recalled to prison at any time.
It was the second time in three years that the Crown had sought a sentence of preventive detention for Maney.
In 2016 he bashed his mother, breaking her cheekbone and nose in an unprovoked attack. At his sentencing for that offence in 2019, Justice Timothy Brewer declined a sentence of preventive detention after pleas for one last chance following claims that Maney had changed his ways.
Justice Layne Harvey this week gave Maney another last chance and instead imposed a sentence of eight years and six months. However, he ordered he must serve a minimum term of 60 per cent of his sentence, which equates to five years.
Justice Harvey outlined the facts of the case, saying Maney and his partner were at a Guy Fawkes celebration at Maney’s home in Rotorua in 2016 when he verbally abused her in front of her teenage son.
She drove back to her house. Two days later, Maney and a friend went to her house in the middle of the night and woke her up. He asked her for a hug but she refused.
She told him he could not talk to her like he did days earlier and expect everything to be OK.
Justice Harvey said Maney then choked the woman until she became unconscious. He then hit her in the face and head. She woke to find Maney’s friend trying to give her first aid.
She was eventually taken to Tauranga Hospital, drifting in and out of consciousness. Doctors found she suffered facial injuries and a brain bleed.
Reports prepared about Maney before sentencing said he had breached parole four times, had been convicted of serious violence eight times and had three convictions for assaulting police or prison officers.
His history of violence included hitting a woman’s head and kicking her in 2021 then, three weeks later, breaking into another woman’s home and indecently assaulting her, Justice Harvey said.
In 2004, he assaulted a fellow prisoner by punching and stomping on his head. The man later died of his injuries.
Maney was released in 2007 but continued to offend, punching a police officer in the head while being transported to court.
In prison, he broke an inmate’s leg and jaw in 2010.
In June 2012, he seriously assaulted a woman and a year later he wounded another by beating her while in possession of a sawn-off shotgun and ammunition. In 2015, he assaulted a woman and punched her female associate. A few months after that, while in jail, he assaulted two police officers.
In 2016, the year he assaulted his partner and his mother, he also threatened to kill an elderly man.
Pre-sentence reports said Maney had a very troubled upbringing.
He told the report writer he experienced physical abuse and neglect. His mother was a teenager when he was born and he had to be resuscitated at birth. His father would beat him from infancy and he was often hit in the head, causing likely concussions. The report said it was likely Maney suffered impairment because of that.
He went to live with his grandparents, but his grandfather also assaulted him. At 12, he ran away and was homeless before being placed in a youth facility.
The report writer said brain injuries were connected with violent offending, particularly partner violence.
“You have spent most of your life in prison and you describe yourself as institutionalised,” Justice Harvey said.
Maney told the report writer he had left the Mongrel Mob and connected with Christianity. He had completed drug and alcohol and anti-violence courses and had counselling in prison.
Despite this, he was described in pre-sentence reports as having an “entrenched pattern of violent offending” and the fact he denied what happened to his former partner meant he still showed no remorse.
He was described as being at high risk of reoffending.
Maney’s lawyer, Michael Bott, said preventive detention was the most severe penalty a court could impose and it would serve no purpose to jail someone indefinitely who was already institutionalised.
Bott said Maney’s traumatic brain injury should instead be addressed and an MRI scan completed, which could lead to medication that would help his rehabilitation.
Justice Harvey noted Maney had undertaken some rehabilitation in the past, including Billy Macfarlane’s Pūwhakamua course in Rotorua.
He “implored” Maney to engage in rehabilitation that would be offered to him in prison during the next five years.
