Six years jail for attack on householders

Press, 27 August 1977, Page 2

Six years jail for attack on householders

PA Hamilton One of the men charged in connection with an armed attack on a Rangiriri family in July was jailed yesterday for six years. He is Kenneth Frederick Kiro, aged 18, who was sentenced by Mr Justice McMullin in the Supreme Court at Hamilton. He admitted charges of aggravated robbery, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and assault on a child, but his counsel, Mr J. Milne, submitted that Kiro was only a party to the latter offence. On the charge of aggravated robbery, Kiro was sentenced to six years jail, with a one-year term for assaulting a child, to be served concurrently. On the charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, he was convicted and discharged. A lower court hearing earlier this month was told that on July 30 Kiro blasted in the door of the house of a Rangiriri orchardist, Mr Bruce Baverstock, with a shotgun. He admitted the charges after the hearing. The man who is alleged to have accompanied Kiro to the house, Wayne Ernest Patrick, is accused of as-

saulting Mr Baverstock’s wife.

Mr Milne, in submissions, said that Kiro’s situation before he decided to accompany the other men on July 3 was “misery." He had been released from prison two weeks before the attack, with about $3. He had returned to his young de facto wife and two children in Otahuhu. He had been unable to find employment, and his only income in that time had been a $2O cheque from the Social Welfare Department, Mr Milne said. “One wonders how a man is able to support an adult woman and two babies and pay $3O a week rent when he had $2O to live on,” Mr Milne said. He described Kiro’s decision to go with the other men to commit a crime as a “spur of the moment opportunity.” “It was not a case of a man joining with a pair of outlaws to continue a Wild West-style gun-slinging escapade,” Mr Milne said. In passing sentence, his Honour said that Kiro’s background was overshadowed by his offence.

“The Court cannot but take a serious view erf this intrusion into a house and the reckless display of force.” he said.