Benfield confident after year of horror

By KELLY BLANCHARD in Rotorua
The victim of a savage attack in Rotorua is hoping 2005 will be a better year for him and his wife.

Guy Benfield, who is deaf, was beaten up twice in one night outside his Rotorua home in unprovoked and brutal attacks 11 months ago.

The assaults, in the early hours of February 14, followed a shocking run of bad luck for him and his wife, Delwyn Gainfort.

Mr Benfield was in a car crash 18 months before the attacks, which left him with head injuries. He had a further accident at work and the couple were burgled five times within a few months.

The attacks left his jaw broken in two places, which meant for weeks he could only eat through a straw while his mouth and jaw healed.

While the couple thought their luck could not get any worse, the financial pressure of Mr Benfield not being able to work and the stresses relating to his injuries led to Mrs Gainfort suffering depression.

She needed more and more time off work to look after Mr Benfield and was eventually made redundant.

Things got so bad for the pair they separated. Although they no longer live together, they are still a couple.

In July last year, Mr Benfield decided to try to take his mind off the ongoing problems relating to his concussion and enrolled at Waiariki Institute of Technology to study a Bachelor in Project Management.

But Mr Benfield claimed that Waiariki was not equipped for a deaf person and he fell behind in his studies. He said a combination of little things led to his inability to learn, such as tutors turning off lights whenever they used overhead projectors, which meant he could not lipread.

Mr Benfield now lives with his parents and wants to get well enough to go back to full-time work. Mrs Gainfort is studying computing at Waiariki.

Mr Benfield said he often read about how such attacks had ruined people's lives.

"Now I'm in that position and I can appreciate how it feels. They don't realise that it distorts families and your finances get shot. It has also meant that I don't trust people that much anymore."

Mrs Gainfort said she wanted Mr Benfield's attackers to know how much hurt they had caused.

Although they had had a bad run of luck leading up to the attacks, the night Mr Benfield was beaten up they had celebrated him working 40 hours a week for the first time since the car crash.

"You get into such a depression you have to be careful that you don't stay there. Everyone is so busy with their own lives, they don't even notice."

But the pair are trying to look on the bright side.

"The reason we walk in the Redwoods is to try and keep positive.

"Things are going to get better," she said.