A man was left without the use of his legs permanently after five gang associates attacked him in his home and stole his wallet and cellphone.

Details of the assault in 2022 have been made public in a Court of Appeal judgment after one of the attackers tried to have a lengthy jail term reduced.

The judgment said that a group of five men, including Raymond Heta, now aged 41, went to the victim’s house in Rotorua on May 28, 2022, all in disguise and some wearing gang patches.

After being told the person they were looking for was in prison, Heta asked the victim, “Well, what have you got?”

The group then punched and kicked the man. When he tried to fend them off, they stabbed him on the top of the head and in his back.

The man fell to the ground with a spinal cord injury at the T10 vertebra level in the middle of his back.

‘Lifelong detrimental consequences’

This left him permanently paraplegic with “lifelong detrimental consequences”, the Court of Appeal decision said.

The group took his bag, containing his wallet and his cellphone.

Heta was later seen driving a vehicle that was taken from the property.

He was charged with aggravated robbery and unlawfully taking a motor vehicle.

He pleaded guilty to both charges after the victim gave evidence against him at a trial in the Rotorua District Court.

Heta was sentenced in February this year to seven years and three months in prison.

One of his co-defendants was dealt with separately by the court and was sentenced to five years in jail.

The other three have still not been identified.

Sentence ‘manifestly excessive’

Heta appealed against the length of his prison sentence, arguing that it was “manifestly excessive” because the sentencing judge had not given him enough credit for his deprived childhood.

Heta’s lawyers argued that Heta had experienced “severe deprivation and disadvantage” from a young age.

His whāngai mother died when he was very young, and he was put in foster care.

Disconnected from his whānau and in the company of other youths in care from gang backgrounds, he joined a gang when he was 15 or 16.

He had what the appeal court justices called a “relatively persistent criminal history” from an early age, including violence, dishonesty, driving and non-compliance offences.

He has received multiple prison sentences.

Justices Christine French, Pheroze Jagose and Ian Gault noted that Heta was 38 when he committed the Rotorua robbery.

They agreed with the sentencing judge that Heta’s background provided a rational explanation for his early participation in group offending.

The Court of Appeal found Raymond Heta's sentence was not manifestly excessive. Photo / NZME

They also noted the information before the judge, identifying Heta’s long-term gang associations.

“But Mr Heta’s background does not explain his continued participation in violent offending into his middle years,” the Court of Appeal judgment said.

“Any discount on the basis of Mr Heta’s background accordingly must be constrained.

“Given his relatively continuous violent offending, other sentencing purposes, such as holding him accountable for the harm he has done and protecting the community, must then take precedence.”

The Court of Appeal determined that Heta’s sentence was not manifestly excessive and dismissed his appeal.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.