Robber’s crime spree revealed
Benn Bathgate
The robber who chopped the thumb off a Hamilton dairy worker also used a firearm to strike a woman in the face as part of a carjacking in Palmerston North, and was part of a group that used an axe during an aggravated robbery at a Cambridge liquor store.
The Waikato Times can reveal further details of Trayd Tahau’s offending spree after obtaining two police summary of facts related to a laundry list of offences including aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and presenting a firearm.
The summaries were requested in the wake of Tahau’s sentencing at Hamilton District Court back in February, where he received an eight year four month jail term, with a minimum term of four years two months.
In total the 20-year-old pleaded guilty to 18 charges spanning a period before, and after, his aggravated robbery at the Irvine St Dairy in Frankton on December 17, 2022.
The attack, which saw a dairy worker lose his thumb after a machete attack, caused nationwide outrage.
His crime spree began on December 11, 2022, at Cambridge’s Black Bull Liquor, where for staff “things seemed pretty normal until around 4.43pm that afternoon”.
That was when a shop worker saw a red Nissan, stolen from Hamilton two days prior, “pull right up in front of the door”.
The staffer “saw the occupants were wearing masks and instantly thought robbery”.
While the shop worker tried to bar the doors a group of eight offenders were able to slide the doors open and gain entry, the first using a small axe to swing at the worker.
“The axe hit him on the left arm and caused a small graze,” the summary said.
The group ripped out the till with approximately $1000 in cash, also taking cigarettes and “high end whiskey”.
The second set of offences began on January 26, 2023, with the theft of a car from a Palmerston North address by Tahau and three co-offenders.
Police located and attempted to stop the vehicle using a tyre deflation device, but were forced to end their pursuit “due to the manner of driving”.
They eventually crashed into another vehicle, forcing the driver out before using that vehicle to drive back to Palmerston North.
It was there Tahau “exited [the vehicle] in possession of a double barrel shotgun”.
He attempted to carjack two other vehicles before approaching an Audi, yelling “get out of the f ...... car, get out of the f ...... car”.
Tahau eventually opened the car door and “twice struck the complainant in the forehead using the barrel end of the shotgun”. The summary said the blows left the female victim with “blood covering [her] face and clothing”.
“Concerned for her safety should she refuse to comply the complainant unclipped her seatbelt and removed herself from the vehicle.”
Police then spotted Tahau driving at high speed along the Napier Rd “at times leaving the tarsealed road to continue his escape”.
The pursuit lasted around 15 minutes until Tahau lost control, crashed into a parked vehicle, and fled.