A teenager involved in a home invasion, which sparked the massive "Enough is Enough" anti-crime rally in Hastings four months ago, has been sent to jail by a judge who feared a public backlash if he did anything less.
Vinnie Freeman Herewini was one of four who burst into a house in Stoneycroft Street, Flaxmere, on June 8, and attacked a 21-year-old man whose girlfriend fled in fear with the couple's six-week-old child.
As police hunted for the offenders, the woman's father, district councillor Henare O'Keefe, organised a public march deploring the increase in violent crime in Hawke's Bay which drew thousands on to the streets of Hastings on June 27.
He also represented the couple when Herewini fronted at a restorative justice conference and expressed remorse, Hawke's Bay Today reported. Herewini, 18, who had never previously been in trouble with police was yesterday sentenced in Napier District Court to two years and one month imprisonment, Hawke's Bay Today reported.
He had previously pleaded guilty to entering a house with intent to commit a crime, and injuring with intent to injure.
Judge Tony Adeane resisted pleas by defence counsel Rebecca Guthrie for home detention saying that to impose a non-custodial sentence would provoke a "public outcry".
He said home detention in the circumstances had "real problems", because of the level of violence in the attack and the public's right to confidence in court responses. A 15-year-old co-offender was last month sentenced in the Youth Court to three months' residential supervision.
Two other alleged co-offenders, Natana Hohaia Harmer, 26, and Senyor Dellow, 29, are on bail awaiting a depositions hearing in Hastings District Court on November 21.
