Timaru teenager stabbed with sharpened ruler

A man who stabbed a teenager with a sharpened ruler during an argument over a cellphone has been sent to prison.

Brenton Kitchen faced sentencing on one charge of wounding with intent to injure when he appeared before Judge Tom Gilbert in the Timaru District Court on Wednesday.

The court heard that on April 3 Kitchen attended a gathering at a house on Canada St in Timaru.

While there, he got involved in an argument with a 16-year-old boy after Kitchen accused him of stealing his cellphone.

The disagreement turned physical when Kitchen punched the victim in the head three times with one hand, while stabbing him in the abdomen with the other.

Judge Gilbert described the weapon as a ruler that was ‘‘sharpened to some type of blade’’.

The teen was initially unaware he had been stabbed, and continued the fight by punching Kitchen once in the head.

The teen and two of his friends were then searched by a group of people at the gathering in a bid to find the cellphone.

When it could not be located, they were told to leave the property. It was only as the teen was leaving that he started struggling to breath and realised he had been stabbed.

‘‘He saw blood and body tissue hanging from the wound,’’ Gilbert said.

The teen was carried down the street by a friend, who then called an ambulance.

He had a two centimetre stab wound that required hospital treatment, the court heard.

Kitchen’s lawyer Kelly Beazley requested a sentence of home detention, saying Kitchen was working and supporting his partner and children.

Gilbert declined that request, citing Kitchen’s past ‘‘significant’’ breaches of community-based sentences.

‘‘I have doubts about his capacity to comply with such a sentence,’’ he said.

When determining a sentence, Gilbert said he took into account Kitchen’s past convictions.

They included one for assault, and a ‘‘significant number’’ for not complying with previous sentences.

He also took into account Kitchen’s remorse over the incident, and the fact he had pleaded guilty.

The stabbing was a ‘‘serious violence offence’’, Gilbert said.

‘‘The consequences could indeed have been much worse.’’

Kitchen was sentenced to two years and three months in prison.