Pointed gun at and assaulted woman
HAMILTON: Sitting in a car in the dead of night, a woman had a gun put to her head.
When she could not give David Aaron Stephenson the information he wanted, he fired the pistol at the windscreen — then pointed the pistol back at her head.
Just five months out of jail after being sentenced to a near threeyear jail term, 31yearold Stephenson was after vengeance on those who testified against him and he wanted the victim to tell him where they lived.
She did not know and continued to repeat that to him throughout the night during several more threats and an indecent assault in which he forced her to watch pornography and smoke methamphetamine.
Stephenson, a Filthy Few gang member who has ‘‘HEIL’’ tattooed across his face, was in the High Court at Hamilton yesterday when he was sentenced to six years and five months’ prison on a raft of charges including kidnapping, indecent assault, assaulting a female, unlawful possession of a firearm and several methamphetamine charges.
The court heard Stephenson texted the victim on April 5 last year and said he needed to talk to her.
The pair met and after sitting in the passenger seat, Stephenson pulled out a pistol and pointed it at her head and said ‘‘this is going to be a long night for you’’ before demanding she hand over the information.
After shooting at the window, which left a crack, he told her the ‘‘next one is going through your head if you don’t tell me’’.
He then made her drive to an associate’s house to pick up a shotgun and took her phone and wallet to ensure she did not leave.
When leaving, he reminded her that it was going to be a long night for her. They drove and picked up another associ ate, getting into his car with Stephenson behind the wheel.
As they drove towards Hamilton, he continued to ask her about where the witnesses lived and when she repeated not knowing anything he punched her in the face and said ‘‘every time you f***ing lie to me I’m going to smack you’’.
They then drove to a secluded supermarket car park and Stephenson got out and again yel led at her, and said he wanted to know where the ‘‘narks’’ lived.
They then drove towards Cambridge, where he pulled over and, after grabbing his gun, told the victim to get in the back seat.
After demanding she look up porn and then play it, he smoked P then also made her smoke it.
Afterwards, she told Stephenson to take her home because if her father noticed she was not home he would call the police.
Stephenson agreed and was arrested by police later that day with drugs and paraphernalia found in his car.
Crown prosecutor Louella Dunn said as Stephenson had earlier accepted a sentence indication the only issue to deal with was a remorse letter he had handed up.
She reminded the judge the impact the offending had on the victim who had been too scared to write a victim impact statement and was wanting to distance herself as much as pos sible from the sentencing process.
Counsel Sharon Green said the letter was genuine and was a form of reassurance for her that she didn’t have anything to fear.
As for his offending, she described it as ‘‘pretty stupid’’ and would see him now jailed for a long time.
Justice Sarah Katz accepted he had had an abusive childhood which had caused depression and other issues in his adult life which had lead to him being a regular user of methamphetamine.
She accepted he had shown ‘‘some remorse and shown some insight’’ into what he had done, giving him a small credit before giving another 10% discount for his, albeit late, guilty plea.
Justice Katz also issued a second strike warning for the kidnapping and indecent assault charges which are qualifying violence offences.