New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Injuring with reckless disregard

Legal area

Court

10 Mar 2020

HAJNAL-HUATA v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2020] NZHC 468

Citation

[2020] NZHC 468
Court

High Court

Given the aggravating factors (use of a weapon, serious injury to W, home invasion and prolonged violence) the District Court's starting points and the 15-month uplift for totality and two-month uplift for prior violent convictions fell within the available sentencing range; the discounts for remorse, cultural/personal circumstances and guilty plea were reasonable on the evidence; the aggregate sentence of two years and three months' imprisonment was not manifestly excessive, therefore the appeal is dismissed.
12 Mar 2019

JONATHAN SIMON COSTIGAN v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2019] NZHC 425

Citation

[2019] NZHC 425
Court

High Court

The High Court found the sentencing Judge's overall approach was within the permissible range though somewhat stern; adopting a 30 month starting point, adding uplifts for prior convictions and bail produced 37 months, then applying a 10% rehabilitative reduction and a 20% guilty plea discount yielded a 27 month sentence, and reducing the imposed sentence by two months would amount to mere tinkering, therefore the appeal was dismissed.
28 Feb 2019

GILLILAND v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2019] NZHC 289

Citation

[2019] NZHC 289
Court

High Court

The appeal is dismissed: the High Court held the District Court did not err. The offending was correctly characterised as moderately serious (an unprovoked two-handed push causing foreseeable serious injury) and, while a conviction may impede travel and employment to a real and appreciable degree, those consequences are not out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending so s107 threshold was not met and discharge without conviction was properly refused.
12 Jun 2018

WALKER v POLICE [2018] NZHC 1388

Citation

[2018] NZHC 1388
Court

High Court

The starting point of two years' imprisonment for injuring with reckless disregard was outside the available discretionary range; having assessed the aggravating features and adjusted for the lesser mens rea of recklessness, the appropriate starting point was 18 months and, after applicable adjustments and credit, the sentence was substituted with 19 months' imprisonment on that charge.
26 Apr 2017

GOWING v R [2017] NZCA 133

Citation

[2017] NZCA 133
Court

Court of Appeal

The Court upheld the trial judge's factual findings as reasonable and not causing a miscarriage of justice, found expert reconstructions were speculative and did not displace witness evidence, refused to admit the proposed fresh affidavit as neither fresh nor cogent and capable of being called at trial, and held the sentence (six months' home detention and $4,000 reparation) to be within principled bounds with no credit for a withdrawn plea; appeals dismissed.

New Zealand Case Law

HAJNAL-HUATA v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2020] NZHC 468

JONATHAN SIMON COSTIGAN v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2019] NZHC 425

GILLILAND v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2019] NZHC 289

WALKER v POLICE [2018] NZHC 1388

GOWING v R [2017] NZCA 133