Those were the words mother Heather Terrill spoke to David Dean Lawson as she read her victim impact statement at Lawson’s sentencing in the Invercargill High Court yesterday.
Mrs Terrill, who was a nurse and had worked in the disability sector and for Child, Youth and Family (Oranga Tamariki), and her husband welcomed Phillip O’Brien into their home when he was just two and a-half months old.
As a result of being shaken when he was just one and a-half months old, Mr O’Brien had cerebral palsy and an extensive brain injury; he found it difficult to read social situations and was vulnerable to being used, Mrs Terrill said.
It was because of this he had befriended members of the Mangu Kaha gang.
"Phillip thought they were friends because they were nice to him
... [he] did not understand the full intentions of this friendship."
He was wearing a Mangu Kaha T-shirt on the day he was attacked because he had been given it after helping one of the gang’s members who had a collapsed lung.
The day Mr O’Brien was attacked, 8-10 Mongrel Mob members, including Lawson, pulled up in three cars, got out and attacked him — stabbing him five times, injuring his liver, kidney and spleen.
"He was wearing the wrong colours. Those colours were given to him as a gift for helping someone out," Mrs Terrill said.
"He wasn’t a member of this gang — just someone who was befriended by them.
"He was easy to pick on. I can’t describe the heart-wrenching sorrow I felt and still feel."
The attack had been devastating on the family, she said.
Mr O’Brien was now no longer able to work.
He suffered from PTSD, and was angry about what had been done to him.
"His bed was drenched with sweat months after the incident because of anxiety and stress," she said.
"I pity you that you have lowered yourself to such a state that you have put yourself in this position.
"All I can say is shame on you. Not only have you changed Phillip’s life in such a dramatic way, but his family’s life too."
