Manawatu Standard

Hammer to the head after deal

- NICHOLAS MCBRIDE

With the back of his head caved in and blood pouring down his face, a man had to stumble away after being beaten with a hammer.

Lawrence Carroll, 24, was hoping to sell drugs, but only hours later he would be in hospital with doctors picking pieces of skull off his brain.

He was allegedly attacked by Tamati Takarua, who is on trial in the Palmerston North District Court for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Takarua claims he saw Carroll on the street, but was not involved on the assault that put him in hospital.

Another man, Isaiah Tutaki, was also involved in the alleged attack.

Carroll had to be taken to Wellington Hospital for surgery.

‘‘Doctors had to pull apart my skull and pick up little pieces off my brain and put it back together,’’ he told the court on Monday.

The incident is alleged to have happened on Humber St, Palmerston North, at 2am on March 13, 2016.

Carroll had been drinking during the day and was planning to sell two ecstasy pills.

He got into the front passenger seat of a car with a group of men, where he was held back by the neck with a hammer and punched, he told the jury. ‘‘It was a struggle for my life.’’

Carroll said he managed to escape the car and stumbled down the street, where he was followed and hit in the head with a hammer and a bat.

The man who assaulted him then left, as Carroll stumbled his way to Tremaine Ave.

Passers-by phoned the police and an ambulance, he said.

‘‘When I hit the stretcher, that was when I felt safe.’’

Takarua pleaded not guilty to the charge, saying he saw Carroll on the street and went to look at him because he was curious, Crown prosecutor Karl van der Plas said.

Van der Plas said there was no dispute an assault happened.

Defence lawyer Tony Thackery questioned the descriptio­ns Carroll gave of the men who assaulted him.

Carroll took exception to that. ‘‘How about I hit you in the head, then get a statement from you a couple days later? There are patches missing.’’

Thackery also questioned Carroll’s sobriety and ability to remember what had happened.

‘‘I was well aware of what I was going through,’’ Carroll said. ‘‘I have re-lived the moment inside my head and it was horrible.’’

The trial is expected to last three to four days.

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