A German tourist was stabbed twice when the man he was drinking with in a car became enraged after losing his car keys.

“You’d had a 40 ounce of gin with tonic mixer and a bottle of wine with the victim,” Judge Gene Tomlinson told Kenneth Michael Green when he appeared in court for sentencing this week.

“You thought he’d knicked your car keys because you were too boozed [and] you couldn’t find them. That’s it.”

The 49-year-old was in the Whangārei District Court on one charge of wounding with intent in relation to the stabbing on November 17 last year.

The incident occurred in a Whangārei carpark, where Green, from Tauranga, had been drinking with a German tourist.

Around 4am, after about five hours of drinking, Green became enraged when he couldn’t find his car keys.

He was caught on CCTV exiting the vehicle and swinging a knife in a downwards stabbing motion towards the car, where the victim remained in the passenger seat.

The knife was swung 35 times and connected with the victim at least twice, once in the hand and once in the leg.

When Green appeared in the dock this week, Judge Gene Tomlinson made an observation.

“He looks a bit tidier than expected. I was expecting a rambling drunk.”

The Crown submitted it was a matter of luck that the victim’s injuries weren’t more serious.

Defence lawyer David Reece accepted his client didn’t need to pick up the knife and he shouldn’t have been drinking.

Green initially pleaded not guilty, but later changed his plea to guilty.

The court heard that during his interview with pre-sentence report writers, he downplayed his actions, attributing his behaviour to being drunk at the time.

“You were never going to win. The CCTV meant you could not succeed on a not guilty plea,” Judge Gene Tomlinson said.

“You’d had a 40 ounce of gin with tonic mixer and a bottle of wine with the victim.

“Throughout the interview with the report writer, you start pointing the finger at your victim.

“You thought he’d knicked your car keys because you were too boozed [and] you couldn’t find them. That’s it.”

Green was given no discount for remorse and sentenced to 10 months’ home detention.

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.