Taonui Cooper followed woman home, burst inside, after she presented $100 bill at service station

Hamilton man Taonui Cooper spotted a woman trying to use a $100 note at BP Whitiora so he followed her home and smashed his way inside. Photo / Belinda Feek

When Taonui Cooper noticed a woman trying unsuccessfully to pay for coffee at a gas station with a $100 note he decided to follow her home and take it.

What followed was a “chilling and predatory attack on a vulnerable victim”.

It was the afternoon of March 20, when the victim, who was preparing to move house, walked down to grab a coffee at BP Whitiora.

She tried to pay for the coffee with her $100 but it wasn’t accepted due to a change shortage.

Cooper, who was sentenced for his actions in the Hamilton District Court, happened to be standing behind her and spied the large bill.

Suspecting she had a large quantity of cash, the 30-year-old and his associate followed her home in their car.

The court heard they drove past several times before Cooper got out, armed with a pair of scissors, a metal bar, and a knife, and knocked on the woman’s back door.

She opened it and he demanded the cash, and as she tried to close it he blocked it before kicking her in the leg and punching her in the face.

She took off back into her house shutting the ranchslider between the kitchen and the lounge behind her.

But Cooper managed to kick the door lock off its railings and then knocked her over, before making a stabbing motion toward her and demanding her money.

She was crying and saying, “no”, and said her bag was in the car.

Cooper left empty-handed but said he would come back and kill her.

Police were called and found his fingerprints inside the house.

Cooper denied having any involvement in the attack when spoken to by police, however, he had been spotted on CCTV along with his associate.

That same night, between 8pm and 7am, he was one of three who broke into a commercial building in Frankton where multiple laptops, cellphones and alcohol, were stolen from three offices.

Blood found at the scene was a DNA match to Cooper.

He also admitted an assault on a woman, at 8.30am on March 25, in the Horahora carpark in Cambridge, after her phone rang and woke him up.

He punched the woman in the forehead several times.

The assault was witnessed by a passerby who called police.

‘Has a severe drug dependency’

Cooper’s counsel, Amanda Bean, told Judge Glen Marshall that he was remorseful and had written a couple of letters to that effect.

She’d also filed a drug and alcohol report and said he should be given further discount “since this man has been able to remain drug-free in custody and reflect on his offending”.

Cooper started life with parents who didn’t discourage drugs or alcohol, and had led to him suffering “quite a severe dependency”.

However, Crown solicitor James Lewis described the attack as a “chilling and predatory attack on a vulnerable victim”.

He said no further discount should be given for remorse as he’d taken no active steps to show “genuine remorse”. He did however agree up to 10% could be given for his upbringing.

Judge Marshall agreed to give Cooper, who had earlier accepted a sentence indication, 25% for his guilty plea and a further 10% for his upbringing, coming to an end term of 32 months’ jail on charges of aggravated burglary, threatening to kill, assault with intent to injure and burglary.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.