Judge likens youths to British hooligans

Press, 23 January 1988, Page 14

Judge likens youths to British hooligans

PA Auckland A Judge in the District Court at Auckland likened an attack by two youths on an elderly man to the violence of hooligans in Britain. Appearing for sentence before Judge Duncan on a joint charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to injure were Dean Lee Marvin, aged 19, a truck driver, and David Mark Everett, aged 17, a manager. Both had earlier pleaded guilty to the charge which arose out of an attack on a man, aged 60, at Okahu Bay on December 3. Police had told the Court that at 11.30 p.m. Marvin and Everett drove past public toilets and saw a man in a doorway. Everett and Marvin decided to attack him because they thought he was a homosexual seeking other homosexuals. The Court was told the

pair used wooden batons to beat the man. Everett threw him against a wall and waved the baton in a threatening manner. Marvin, it was stated, struck the man’s thigh and knee twice with his baton. After the man was thrown to the ground, Marvin and Everett struck him about the body, arms and legs. In an attempt to stop the attack, the man offered his watch and wallet to Everett who took the items and threw them on the ground and then into the sea.

Questioned by police, both youths admitted the assault. Everett said he hated homosexuals who in the past had sexually assaulted and pestered him. Marvin explained that he took part ‘‘to go along with” his friend The victim suffered a broken right arm and wrist, a chipped bone in his left elbow, severe

bruising and a broken rib. A psychiatric report requested in respect of Everett was not before the Court.

Judge Duncan remanded him to Carrington Hospital for a fortnight and delayed sentence until February 4. In sentencing Marvin to six months imprisonment and disqualifying him from driving for nine months, Judge Duncan said such attacks on innocent people were not to happen. “Your conduct and that of Everett is the very sort of thing that has become so well publicised in Britain, where gangs of hooligans simply take on their victim of the moment in pursuit of giving vent to their own violence,” he said. “This is not to happen so far as the public is concerned. They are entitled to be protected from that, and to see the courts

giving that protection in the way of appropriate sentences which will discourage that sort of behaviour.” The Judge said the victim could not be said to have acted in any way which identified him as a homosexual.

Even if he had, there was no justification for seeking people out and dishing out a “brutal beating that almost defies description.” Judge Duncan added: “From what I see before me, you and your cooffender were quite happy to indulge in your own kind of hell-raising when you felt so inclined.”

Counsel for Marvin, Mr Alan Stuart, said: “In every enterprise there is a ring-leader and a disciple. In this case, very clearly, Everett led and Marvin was very much somebody who was there tagging along.”