Blanket-on-head plan a failure for intruder

A man who broke into his former friend’s home and accidentally stabbed him was jealous the man was dating his ex-partner, a judge has said.

Andrew James Rodgerson, 26, snuck into the man’s house under the cover of darkness in October last year, knelt on his bed with a kitchen knife and a blanket over his head to conceal his identity and flicked on his torch.

The kitchen knife had a 15-centimetre blade. Rodgerson was also carrying a shopping bag containing another knife, a screwdriver, a mallet, a hammer and a sealed jar containing orange and brown liquids, which when mixed made napalm.

The man in bed, a 24-year-old, woke immediately and called out for help, shouting ‘‘intruder, intruder’’.

They struggled and the man tried to take the knife from Rodgerson, who then stabbed the man in the abdomen.

The man’s mother came into the room. The blanket fell from Rodgerson’s head, revealing his identity to the man and his mother, who both knew him.

Rodgerson stopped struggling and sat down, and waited for police to arrive at the Lane St property, in Blenheim.

Police found the knife stuck in the blanket, which had several holes from the knife.

The man was taken to Wairau Hospital, in Blenheim, where medical staff found his liver had been injured. He also had cuts to his nose, neck, elbow, knee and defensive cuts to his wrist. He was airlifted to Wellington Hospital for surgery.

When spoken to by police, Rodgerson The jar of liquids was examined by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research. It was found to be base ingredients for napalm, the summary said.

The case had been remanded several times while Rodgerson was psychologically assessed, but he was found ‘‘not insane’’ and fit to stand trial in December.

He had been in custody since the offending, initially held under the Mentally Impaired Persons Act.

Rodgerson admitted a charge of wounding with intent in January, and Judge Stephen Harrop gave Rodgerson his first strike under the ‘three strikes’ law.

At the sentencing earlier this month, Judge Peter Butler told Rodgerson, who appeared by audio-visual link, the public gallery was full of supporters. He gave credit for his good character, saying a report showed he had a low risk of reoffending.

But the mother of Rodgerson’s child had left him for his former friend, which a psychologist said seemed to trigger the event, Judge Butler said.

The man said they had been friends for five or six years. ‘‘[Rodgerson] was one of my closest friends over the past year. He always seemed level-headed and rational,’’ the man wrote in a victim impact statement.

Months later, he could not lift things without pain and expected that would not change. He also struggled to sleep, since he learnt about the jar of napalm.

Judge Butler sentenced Rodgerson to four years and nine months’ imprisonment.