Anger, pain add to sense of injustice over below-belt attack

LIFE SENTENCE: Brian Ross says he will always live with the effects of the attack on him. PHOTO/FILE

It's been six months since the life of Kawerau's Brian Ross took a turn for the worse.

In March 66-year-old Stephen Docherty used a sharp metal "hook" to rip open Mr Ross' scrotum after the pair disagreed over a concreting job.

Docherty pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding with intent and was sentenced to 12 months' home detention and 160 hours' community work in June - a sentence that angered Mr Ross at the time as he deemed it exceptionally light.

His anger has not abated, and nor has the severe pain Mr Ross has lived with since March.

"I'm still struggling to understand the unfairness of it all," Mr Ross told the Rotorua Daily Post. "My life as I knew it has been ruined."

Mr Ross unsuccessfully appealed Docherty's sentence to the High Court.

"Everyone I have spoken to thought he would do jail time.

"I'm still finding it really hard he got off so lightly.

"I honestly feel like he's got away scot free."

He said he alternated Tramadol with Codeine for the pain he experienced every day.

"Doctors have told me the nerve and tissue damage caused by the hook will mean I will never work again and I will have to be on painkillers for the rest of my life.

"I had made the decision to get my scrotum removed but in the days before the surgery, the doctor made the decision not to do it.

"They said it's the absolute last thing they want to do."

Mr Ross is awaiting an ACC decision as to whether it will fund the $200 or $300 a month needed for a "high-powered" painkiller to help with the pain and the pins and needles he struggles to cope with.

"The closest way to describe the pain is like a really bad toothache - it just doesn't go away.

"But if I try to do something physical like lift anything, it rockets up to an 8 or a 9 out of 10 on the pain scale."

For the former landscaper who once gave thousands of volunteer hours to the Kawerau District Council, it is hard to live with.

"I went to Woodfest during the weekend hoping I could help out but there was nothing I could do.

"It just doesn't seem fair.

"I have a life sentence while he just carries on doing what he's always done."

TVNZ recently spent three days in Kawerau filming Mr Ross and speaking to other residents from the town. The show is expected to air on Monday night on Seven Sharp on TV One.