Dunedin man Nyal Heke (30) was sentenced to nearly 10 years in jail in June for rape, and was caught after his victim contacted him on Facebook.
Yesterday he appeared in the Dunedin District Court before Judge Thomas Ingram, who took part in the case via videolink, for sentencing on a charge of grievous bodily harm with intent to injure.
Judge Ingram said video footage showed Mr Heke was minding his own business in the prison yard when the victim, who was clearly in poor mental health, approached him.
‘‘He was talking to himself and engaging in an internal debate,’’ Judge Ingram said.
The victim took a ‘‘fighting stance’’ and despite Mr Heke moving away, got close enough to prompt Mr Heke to defend himself.
‘‘You hit him once, and you hit him hard.’’
The victim was unconscious before he hit the concrete surface of the yard and Mr Heke put him in the recovery position.
It appeared to be a ‘‘case of excessive self-defence and nothing else’’, Judge Ingram said.
The victim’s mother and her partner were in court, and a victim impact statement was read out on their behalf, asking for justice.
It said the victim, who was 47, suffered from schizophrenia.
He had been waiting to appear in court on a charge of shoplifting food.
After his brain injury he was entirely dependent on others to eat, stand and go to the toilet, and had no way of communicating his needs or wishes.
His life was ‘‘irrecoverably stolen by being in the wrong place at the wrong time’’.
‘‘Everyone who knows him is praying for a much better outcome than what the medical experts have predicted,’’ the statement read.
Mr Heke had two previous convictions for indecent assaults in 2005 and 2006, and in 2010 was sentenced to a seven and a-half year stretch for wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm after an assault on a fellow inmate in Auckland Prison at Paremoremo.
Judge Ingram said he was sentencing Mr Heke on the basis the victim would not be recovering.
He said Mr Heke’s actions were ‘‘in my view understandable’’ and gave Mr Heke credit for trying to help the victim, and for taking part in the restorative justice process.
Judge Ingram had seen footage of a number of prison fights and Mr Heke’s attempt to help was ‘‘exceptional’’, he said. However he told Mr Heke the community needed protection, and he needed rehabilitation.
He was sentenced to 15 months in jail, in addition to his existing sentence.
