Women admit vicious attack

Three women have admitted to seriously assaulting two women during an attack in which the victims believed they were going to die.

Lee Gail Peneha, 36, Riwhia Rimene, 43 and Riwhia Peneha, 55, who originally faced home invasion charges following the May 8 incident, pleaded guilty to two charges of injuring with intent to injure and burglary when they appeared before Judge Ian Mill in the Masterton District Court yesterday.

Rimene also pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching a protection order and Peneha junior pleaded guilty to a charge of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The Times-Age can now reveal Rimene is currently serving a nine month jail term for assaulting a pregnant 15-year-old neighbour and assaulting her former partner - one of the current victims.

The court heard from police prosecutor Jodie Lawrence that on May 8, after they had been drinking together, at about 7.45pm the trio had gone to the home of the victims - a mother and daughter, one of whom had been in a relationship with Rimene - and entered the home without permission.

"It was the intention of the accused to confront the victims and assault them," she told the court.

Rimene confronted the woman she had been in a relationship with, yelling at her, blaming her for the recent death of her mother and punching her in the face, striking her five or six times, causing her to fall to the floor, the sergeant said.

"All three accused began punching and kicking the victim as she tried to protect herself on the floor."

Rimene grabbed the victim's head banging it on the floor four or five times. The victim was kicked about the back, head and legs by all three as she tried to protect her head and face.

Lee Peneha stomped on the woman's chest before strangling her, the sergeant said.

"She could not breathe as she was being strangled and thought she was going to die," she said.

The first victim's mother sat in the corner of the kitchen too terrified to help her daughter, the court heard.

Rimene turned her attention to the older woman calling her a "nark" and accusing her of calling police in regard to previous domestic incidents.

Lee Peneha punched the older woman in the eye, grabbing a handful of her hair, banging the back of her head against the wall with such force her head put a hole on the formica wall board, Ms Lawrence said.

"She dragged the victim from her seat on to the floor, ripping large chunks of hair from the victim's scalp."

All three women then set their attention on the older victim, kicking and punching her as they had previously done to her daughter.

"They both believed they were about to die," she said.

Lee Peneha continued to pull hair from the older woman's head, placing a ball of her hair on the stove element which caused it to burn and smoulder, filling the house with smoke and setting the smoke alarm off.

The younger of the victims was then asked by Lee Peneha to get cannabis from her bedroom.

Arming herself with a kitchen knife, Peneha followed the younger victim into the bedroom and when she couldn't find cannabis began lunging at her with the knife in a stabbing motion, the court heard.

In an attempt to protect herself, the victim used her left arm to block the knife and was stabbed five times in the left hand and arm.

Peneha then dumped the contents of a wooden drawer over the victim's head, forcing the drawer to break, cutting the back of her head.

"The victim completely feared for her life and ran out of the room and out the front door, escaping to a neighbouring address to raise the alarm."

Both victims suffered extensive bruising among other injuries and both had to be hospitalised, the sergeant said.

Judge Mill remanded Riwhia Peneha on bail and Lee Peneha and Rimene in custody for a pre-sentence report and sentencing on October 3.