Part in aggravated robbery brings jail

Press, 18 December 1986, Page 23

Part in aggravated robbery brings jail

PA Auckland A man who was a party to an aggravated robbery in which a person was stabbed has been jailed for six years.

He is Richard Clifford Brunton, aged 32, a sickness beneficiary, who appeared before Mr Justice Prichard in the High Court at Auckland.

Brunton had previously pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated robbery, causing grievous bodily harm and burglary.

Mr Justice Prichard said that on the night of February 8 Brunton and others returned to a house where he had earlier been to a party.

His Honour said he was satisfied that Brunton was

wearing a stocking mask and carrying a loaded .22 rifle.

While Brunton and others were ransacking a bedroom, a man who was a member of the household approached him. There was a struggle during which the man was stabbed and clubbed with the butt of the rifle. His Honour said he was satisfied it was not Brunton who knifed the man. Brunton, he said, had an appalling record. Defence counsel, Mr Bob Hesketh, said Brunton had little recollection of what happened on February 8. He and his de facto wife had been on an “orgy of bodily abuse” involving pills, alcohol

and cannabis over two days. On the night in question Brunton said he was “nothing short of a zombie.”

Brunton said that, from what he could remember and from what he had been able to piece together, he was not responsible for the stabbing, and he did not believe he was carrying the gun.