Disgraced former AB fights to keep name secret
The man was sentenced to two years’ intensive supervision for the assault but his identity cannot yet be revealed. Mike Mather reports.
A former All Black has been sentenced to two years of intensive supervision for punching a woman in the face.
The man appeared in the Hamilton District Court yesterday, after earlier pleading guilty to a single charge of male assaults female.
The assault happened on December 20, 2019 and left his victim with a bleeding nose and bruising to her face.
Through his lawyer, Rob Quin, he applied for permanent name suppression, which was denied by Judge Robert Spear. Quin immediately sought leave to appeal that decision, and the judge granted his client one week to lodge an appeal with the court.
Many details of the case against the man cannot yet be reported without revealing his identity, however the incident that led to the charge – described by the judge as ‘‘an appalling act’’ – took place in a car, in which the man, who was extremely intoxicated, had been offered a ride by a group of friends.
The victim had been sitting in the front passenger seat and the man was seated in the rear when, without warning, he punched her in the face.
As the court heard, neither the victim nor the man could remember what spurred the assault, although it was apparently sparked by a remark about a family member.
The victim, who now lives overseas, was scheduled to fly out of the country the day after the incident, and had to do so with bruising over her face. She still has issues with breathing through her nose.
‘‘This was a savage blow delivered to an unsuspecting woman that caused significant injury,’’ the judge said.
‘‘You could well have been charged with a more serious offence than this.’’
In spite of this, the man and the victim had participated in a restorative justice conference in July last year, at which he had apologised to her and had provided her with $3000 in reparation.
He had told her: ‘‘I’m so, so sorry. Not a day has gone by without thinking that I have hit a girl.’’
She was supportive of his application for permanent name suppression.
In the words of the judge, she ‘‘clearly has a soft spot for you’’.
Judge Spear said the man evidently had an inability to control his drinking, or his behaviour when he had been drinking.
‘‘The degree of intoxication was such that you acted in the most extraordinary way, by punching someone who caused you no offence and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.’’
The judge said he had ‘‘considerable concern about what you might be capable of if your drinking is not brought under control’’.
One of the conditions of the man’s intensive supervision sentence was to not possess or consume alcohol at any time. A Probation Service presentence report recommended a sentence of supervision, but this would be insufficient, the judge said.
The intensive supervision would be judicially monitored and, if it was apparent the man was not abiding by his conditions, ‘‘you will be back before me, and you will be looking at a sentence that restricts your liberty.’’
The man’s application for permanent suppression was considered at length by the judge, who deemed that the principles of open justice needed to prevail.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Andrew Kennedy said the man had received positive media coverage in recent times.
‘‘It seems [the defendant] tends to seek positive media coverage but wants to suppress anything detrimental to him. The media should be able to present balanced coverage [of the defendant] and not just what he wants.’’
Kennedy also said the man’s employers and others who he dealt with needed to be informed of his conviction. The judge agreed.
‘‘There should be a very good reason to point to extreme hardship
. . . Clearly anybody who deals with you now needs to know what happens when you get completely intoxicated.’’
Quin had contended that one of the consequences of naming his client would be that he would be pilloried on social media.
‘‘It should be punitive, it should not be public shaming.’’
‘‘That may well happen,’’ said the judge. ‘‘In the end you have to grow up and move past this. You can’t do that by hiding.’’