Home D for sleeping baby carjacker as ‘last chance’

The man who stole a car with a young baby girl inside at a Whanga¯rei petrol station has been sentenced to home detention, as a judge says the prolific offender can still turn his life around.

Sean Broderick, 53, was completely unaware the baby was sleeping in the back seat when he took the car from the forecourt in May this year.

“Mr Broderick, to be perfectly clear, is not charged with kidnapping,” defence lawyer Daniel Schellenberg said. “He did not know the baby was in the car.”

That had come as a shock that his client had described as a wakeup call, he said.

“It really upset him. He was frankly ashamed of himself.”

Broderick was transient and stuck in Whanga¯rei around the time of a lockdown, and the car had seemed a chance to get back to Waikato, the lawyer said.

While he was not under influence when he took the car, the 53-year-old had been struggling with drug addiction.

“He wants to change things. He is sick of being in and out of jail,” Schellenberg said.

Broderick had already been sentenced to imprisonment 113 times, the court heard.

“In my submission, imprisonment does not work for this man,” Schellenberg said.

Judge Ema Aitken said the victim— who has permanent name suppression — had been under some stress, needing to get petrol before an appointment.

In her rush, she turned the engine off but left the keys in the ignition as she stepped out to prepay, the judge said.

“Her baby was asleep, secured in the rear back seat, and as it transpired a blanket had been placed over the baby.”

The victim herself acknowledged there was no way to know about the child without lifting the blanket, the court heard.

Broderick got into the car and drove about 3km before police saw him, Judge Aitken said.

“You were travelling at speed. They were aware that the car had been reported stolen.”

Police followed.

Broderick travelled too fast around a sharp right turn, losing control of the vehicle and mounting a footpath before colliding with a rock retaining wall. The car veered back across the road and crashed into a parked vehicle.

Broderick continued to drive, going over the retaining wall of a neighbouring driveway.

The car dropped about a metre down the embankment. He then fled the scene. “The baby was unharmed and remained restrained in the rear of the vehicle,” Judge Aitken said.

The Auckland District Court judge said it was “spur of the moment” offending, but the car was extensively damaged.

Broderick was identified through CCTV footage and a DNA profile, the court heard.

In the interview that followed, he said he had seen a “sudden opportunity” to leave Whanga¯rei.

He then panicked when he saw the flashing lights.

Broderick wanted to meet the victim to apologise face-to-face and had also written her a letter to share how sorry he was.

“I regard your plea of guilty as effectively reinforcing what is very clearly genuine remorse in this particular case,” the judge said.

The driving offences he admitted were: unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, failing to stop, driving while disqualified, and dangerous driving.

Judge Aitken urged him to take the sentence seriously.

“You need now to do that really difficult work on yourself. You need to see this very much as a last chance.”