Apologetic actor fined for assault
Pana Lawrence Hema-Taylor has appeared in movies and on TV Police charge into Manus action
One of the stars of TV crime show Westside has been fined $500 after an assault outside his family home. Pana Lawrence HemaTaylor, who starred in the hit film Boy, earlier pleaded guilty to an assault charge after coming to the aid of his mother and sister during a streetside melee.
The 28-year-old appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday before Judge Russell Collins on a charge relating to the incident outside his family’s home last February.
Sentencing was due to take place on September 15, but was delayed after Hema-Taylor missed his flight from Napier. Police did not seek an arrest warrant.
Hema-Taylor, who played mechanic Bert Thompson in TV3’s Westside, initially faced a charge of assault with intent PNG police stormed the closed Manus Island detention centre yesterday and demanded that hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers remaining there leave immediately.
Several men barricaded inside the centre described how heavy-handed police and im- to injure. However, it was amended to common assault given the incident’s circumstances.
Hema-Taylor’s lawyer, Ron Mansfield, made a brief submission to the court before Judge Collins handed down the sentence yesterday.
Mansfield said the actor “certainly wasn’t out looking for trouble” at the time. HemaTaylor was employed, was “filming”, and “things are going well” for him.
On the night, he was home with a young child. The victim had been drinking and “settled” outside HemaTaylor’s home with a group, who proceeded to make noise. Hema-Taylor’s relatives asked the group to be quiet. The situation escalated and HemaTaylor, perceiving a threat to his family, stepped in.
“You reacted in the heat of the moment and kicked him in the head,” Judge Collins said. “All in all, it was an unfortunate migration officers went through the centre yesterday.
“They are destroying everything. Shelters, tanks, beds and all of our belongings,” Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani wrote on Twitter.
There were claims some police or immigration person- nel had sticks and knives. Images uploaded on social media showed refugees with injuries allegedly inflicted during the raid.
Australian Immigration said PNG police were removing about 400 men. event. It certainly had an impact on the victim.”
Judge Collins acknowledged Hema-Taylor was a high-profile defendant.
“We see assaults like that, sadly, every day of the week and what Mr Mansfield has been at pains to stress in his submissions is that you don’t ask for any special treatment because you’re an actor, you don’t ask to be treated leniently . . . you have consciously made the decision not to seek a discharge without conviction even though that will place hurdles in your way in the future.”
Judge Collins also dressed Hema-Taylor’s cult upbringing.
“You come from a gang background in Wairoa . . . I well understand the actual impact in day-to-day lives in people from that gang environment in Wairoa.
“What Mr Mansfield is saying is I don’t want any special treatment for my client because he’s an actor — but some recognition of how far you’ve come in your life from your background.”
He said the victim did not addiffi- “offer Taylor.
“I don’t accept that he did offer violence to you but I can accept in the situation . . . You could have well perceived that to be the case.”
He commended HemaTaylor for his early guilty plea and for not blaming the victim for starting the fracas.
Hema-Taylor had shown “clear remorse”.
Judge Collins convicted the actor and fined him $500.
He also ordered HemaTaylor to pay his victim $1500 reparation for emotional harm.
After sentencing, HemaTaylor provided a statement to the Herald.
“As I have previously stated, on that night I felt that I needed to become involved to protect my mum and sister from an assault outside their home,” he said. “But I accept in retrospect that I misjudged the situation and what was required.
“I used too much force and someone was hurt.
“I have made mistakes in the past and I am not perfect.
“But I am committed to keeping out of trouble and concentrating on my work.” violence” to Hema-