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Three teenage girls
have been jailed for what a judge yesterday described as a
"sadistic" slashing of a schoolgirl. The 16-year-old victim
was having a softdrink in a park in Three Kings while on her way to school in
August last year when she was set upon. The girl, who has name
suppression, was thumped and kicked and had her head banged against a tree
stump. She was then dragged to
a nearby toilet block, where she was robbed of $10. Each time the girl said
she had no more money to give, she was sliced with a pair of scissors. She suffered a cut to
her eyebrow, four slashes to her thigh and one to her stomach. At the time of the
attack, Teangarua Lucy Akatere was aged 15, Tania Mayze Vini was 14 and
McCushla Priscilla Fuataha had just turned 14. They were found guilty
of aggravated robbery at a trial in the High Court at Auckland last month. A 13-year-old girl
involved in the attack was too young to be charged. The youngest of the
trio before court, Fuataha - who wielded the weapon - was sentenced to two
years' jail. The other two received 18 months. Prosecutor Kieran
Raftery said Fuataha's conduct was the most "cold, callous and
chilling." The slicing of the victim
was gratuitous. "It was almost toying and playing with her," Mr
Raftery told Justice Tony Randerson. The attackers left the
girl bleeding and injured in the toilets and ran off in a "cowardly
fashion." Justice Randerson said
the girl believed she was going to be killed. In addition to
permanent physical scarring, there were also the emotional scars she would
have to endure. The judge said he had
given anxious consideration to the case. Despite the defendants'
young age, he did not consider a non-custodial sentence appropriate because
of factors including the deliberate cutting of the victim, which he said was
"quite sadistic." Justice Randerson noted
that the trio continued to deny their offending. He gave leave for them
to apply to the Parole Board for home detention. |
