Zepplin-Solly Rameka, 22, was jailed for five years after he delivered a near-fatal assault on a woman last year. Photo / 123RF
After beating a woman into unconsciousness, Zepplin-Solly Rameka refused to seek medical help for his victim and instead bathed her and cut her hair.
She later woke, dazed and with no memory of how she’d been left with a large wound on the side of her head.
For 15 hours, the woman drifted in and out of consciousness, in need of medical treatment.
It wasn’t until Rameka’s mother arrived at his Huntly address and found the victim that an ambulance was finally called.
Rameka, 22, has appeared in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing on charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, assault with a weapon and assault on a person in a family relationship.
In sending Rameka to jail for five years, Judge Noel Cocurullo told him it was “more good luck than good management by you that she is currently alive”.
The vicious assault was the second in three days, court documents show.
On September 29 last year, Rameka accused the woman of sleeping with his brother and struck her head with such force the noise from the blow and her scream could be heard outside the room.
Two days later, and after requests for sex, Rameka accused the woman of sleeping with three of his brothers and another man.
He became “extremely angry, abusive and aggressive” as the woman denied the accusations, the documents stated.
He then punched her and strangled her, rendering her unconscious.
She was unaware of the full extent of her injuries and recalled being showered with her clothes on by Rameka, who washed her face and head as the water stung her wound. He also cut her hair.
She then rested on a mattress as Rameka lay beside her, telling her he was “going to end up in prison”.
The woman felt unwell throughout the day, continuing to fall in and out of consciousness. She was bruised, bleeding and “in significant pain and distress”.
His mother arrived and repeatedly urged her son to call emergency services. But he insisted “she needs a shower, not an ambulance”.
His mother called the ambulance and Rameka fled.
At the hospital, the seriousness of her injuries was revealed. She had an “extensive” laceration to her head, a fractured skull, broken wrists, a 2cm-wide, 5cm-deep hole in her head and bilateral arm fractures.
The victim now required “extensive rehabilitation” and it was unclear whether her injuries will be permanent.
Police carried out an ESR search of the house using luminol testing and found blood staining, which showed Rameka’s attempt to clean up the blood.
When questioned, he said he had interrupted an unknown man attacking the woman and then put her in the shower and cut her hair “in an attempt at assisting her”.
In court, defence lawyer Kerry Tustin sought further discounts from Rameka’s earlier sentence indication, telling Judge Cocurullo there wasn’t “much more that [Rameka] could have suffered” during his upbringing.
“It would be hard to see a person with a harder background than this man had.”
He was 21 at the time of the offending and should be entitled to a youth discount, “as the impact of a young person in prison is well-known”, Tustin submitted.
On top of his 25 per cent for his early guilty plea, she sought additional discounts for rehabilitation, remorse and his “striking” cultural report, totalling 30 per cent.
Rameka also penned a letter of remorse.
Crown prosecutor Paige Noorland described the assault as “brutal and prolonged” and the victim had chosen not to come to court due to the difficulties she continued to have with her injuries.
She asked the judge to temper any discounts, including for remorse.
Judge Cocurullo replied, “He’s not getting anything for remorse from me.”
“He’s walking around saying, ‘All she needs is a shower’, then the ambulance [staff] say she’s category one, i.e, she’s going to die.
“He can write to me all he likes ... we have very serious offending here.
“The way this played out was a disgraceful piece of conduct from him.”
In sending him to jail, Judge Cocurullo said the victim’s injuries were “truly harrowing and clearly life-threatening”.
“It would have been well-known to you what you had done to her.
“That her need was not to have a shower, but fortunately, other whānau intervened to call the ambulance.”
However, apart from remorse, he agreed Rameka was entitled to multiple discounts totalling 47.4 per cent.
A protection order was also put in place.