Ōpōtiki man Bonny Anthony Temple, 47, in the High Court at Hamilton on Thursday when he was sentenced for the manslaughter of Wayne Beach in September 2023. Photo / Belinda Feek
Bonny Anthony Temple may have been a good, law-abiding citizen, but he was still capable of taking a life.
And, one day in September 2023, that’s exactly what happened when the 47-year-old attacked a neighbour who had been regularly shouting obscenities across the fence of his mother-in-law’s property.
Temple says he asked Wayne Beach to stop after his mother-in-law became sick, but the Ōpōtiki man said he could do what he wanted and hit him.
Temple then lost his cool and unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks, and Beach, who had mental health issues, died the next day.
Temple was later found guilty by a Rotorua jury of manslaughter and was sentenced this week in the High Court at Hamilton.
Beach’s brother and mother both described the impact Temple’s actions had had on them.
In his victim impact statement, Jason Beach said he was angry his 54-year-old brother’s life had suddenly been cut short.
“I keep remembering Bonny’s words saying that he was a good man during the court case.
“He might be.
“But good men can do bad things.
“Being a good man didn’t stop you from killing my brother.”
Jason said his brother “was not a well man”.
“He was not a bad man or a good man, but a sick man, but Bonny took away any chance of his life improving.”
Despite his anger, Jason said, he was now keen to move on, with Wayne’s memory forever stilled in his heart.
However, his mother, Mairi, in her statement said that while she bore no malice toward Temple or his family, “I cannot forgive him for what he has done”.
Before reading the events of the fateful day, Justice Michael Robinson revealed some relevant background of the relationship between whānau.
For many years, the Beach brothers lived next door to Temple’s mother-in-law in Ōpōtiki.
Wayne Beach had a history of mental illness, and often “behaved in ways that created difficulties between the neighbours”, which included him regularly shouting at them, including swearing.
Sometimes, Temple’s mother-in-law would move into a front room with the TV turned up so that she couldn’t hear Beach.
In September 2023, Temple and his wife moved into his mother-in-law’s house while the roof of their house was being fixed.
On September 21, his mother-in-law was taken to Whakatāne Hospital.
After work, he stopped in at her house, but she wasn’t home, so he carried on to his house.
He spied Beach walking along the road and pulled over to speak to him.
Temple told Beach his mother-in-law was sick and he wanted Beach’s behaviour to stop.
It was Temple’s evidence that Beach told him to “f*** off” and that he could do whatever he wanted.
It was then that Beach struck Temple with his grocery bag and punched him in the jaw.
Temple then punched Beach twice in the head, sending him to the ground, before kicking him twice in the chest and again in the head with his steel cap boots.
A witness described Temple’s kick as “a sort of rugby kick”.
Temple walked away, and said that as he drove off, he saw Beach get up and walk away.
Beach’s brother testified that when he got home, he was distressed and had a swollen eye.
He rang the police and said Wayne’s breathing had become laboured and shallow. Police took him to a medical centre, but his condition deteriorated.
He died the next day.
An autopsy showed six rib fractures along with chest and face bruising.
However, the report revealed for the first time that Beach was also suffering from “significant artery and heart disease”, but his cause of death was complications of blunt force chest trauma.
Beach’s brain failed from insufficient oxygenated blood to the brain, which was caused by chest trauma that Temple inflicted; however, it was also contributed to by the pre-existing and significant coronary and artery disease.
“Mr Beach’s underlying heart disease meant that even before the assault, his ability to pump blood around the body was significantly compromised,” the judge said.
“Mr Beach was at risk of dying from natural causes.”
Crown prosecutor Hannah Speight said the attack was one involving multiple blows to the head and multiple kicks, using steel cap boots to both sides of the deceased’s body.
She disagreed that there was any provocation on the victim’s behalf, labelling that a “mischaracterisation”.
While Temple qualified for a previous good character discount, he should get none for remorse, because he had turned down a restorative justice conference.
A lot of his comments in his remorse letter were also “self-serving”, she said.
“There just is a lack of genuine remorse expressed here,” she said.
Defence counsel Martin Hine said his client and his whānau were grateful for the compassion of the Beach whānau.
As for remorse, it was evident at trial that his client and the victim’s family met outside court, “where expressions of remorse were given and accepted”.
“For his part, Mr Temple is a man of few words,” he said.
“He has struggled with the impact of what he has caused.
“His remorse letter is erudite, it’s heartfelt, and it’s sincere, and it expresses the remorse of a man who continues to struggle with the enormous loss that he has caused to Mr Beach’s whānau.”
It was that difficulty, together with his struggle to contain his grief and emotion about what had occurred.
“This is not a man who lacks empathy or insight; this is a man almost overwhelmed because of the empathy and insight that he possesses in relation to what he ... has caused.”
Justice Robinson accepted that Temple, who works in the kiwifruit industry, didn’t intend to cause Beach grievous bodily harm that day, but it was also clear the jury didn’t accept that he was acting in self-defence.
“It’s unclear whether that’s because you were never acting in self-defence or because even if you were, your assault on Mr Beach was excessive.”
He agreed there was a degree of provocation, and Beach’s “long history” of shouting abuse was also relevant.
Beach also had pre-existing conditions which contributed to this death.
The judge took a starting point of three and a half years before applying various discounts totalling 43%, taking into account Temple’s 20 letters of support and the contributions he’d made to his community.
After getting down to 24 months’ jail, he noted Temple’s risk of reoffending was low, and the wishes of the victim’s family, who didn’t want to see him jailed.
Labelling the circumstances of the case as “highly unusual”, he converted the sentence to 12 months’ home detention.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.