Farm beating ‘vigilante justice’

Two men who dished out a vigilante justice beating on a Waikato farm have been sent to jail.

‘‘You inflicted violence as a means of teaching [your victim] not to be violent,’’ Judge Kim Saunders said, as she sentenced the men in the Hamilton District Court yesterday.

‘‘I hope you realise the absurdity and irony of what you did.’’

Elisha Jack Cramond and Michael Sam Torrington rubbed cow dung and gravel in their victim’s eyes during the assault – he lost sight in one eye.

A jury found the pair guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and Cramond was also found guilty of threatening to kill, and preventing the course of justice.

Yesterday, he was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in jail, and Torrington to 11 years and three months. Each man has a 50 per cent non-parole period.

The assault happened on a pitch-black night in August 2017.

The victim and his partner had been staying at the Kerepehi farm after their car broke down.

Cramond and Torrington were ‘‘stuffing rocks and cow shit into my mouth and rubbing it into my eyes’’, the man said as he read out his victim impact statement.

‘‘I’ve lost my right eye completely and vision is blurred in my left.’’

He was bitten and repeatedly punched and kicked, and his body, memory, hearing, and confidence were affected.

‘‘Your will to kill me is my will to survive,’’ he told his attackers through his statement.

‘‘I’ve accepted where I’ve gone wrong. Can you?’’

His partner said she considered Torrington a mate, but she was now scared of the dark and of trusting others.

Nothing stopped the attack, ‘‘not my cries of horror, my pleas – nothing.’’

It was vigilante action, Judge Saunders said.

The victim was attacked while on the ground, struggling to see, and slipping in and out of consciousness.

His head was targeted and he was left with bruising, including to his genital and anal areas.

The attack was said to be out of character for Cramond, and his defence counsel Ann-Marie Beveridge said his first prison sentence would be a lengthy one.

Torrington’s lawyer, Martin Hine, said Torrington had helped the victims when their car broke down but got ‘‘embroiled in a rapidly deteriorating situation’’.

‘‘You inflicted violence as a means of teaching [your victim] not to be violent. I hope you realise the absurdity and irony of what you did.’’ Judge Kim Saunders