WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — The mother of a security guard stabbed outside a Wellington bottle store last year dropped dead when he phoned her in Ethiopia to tell her, the High Court at Wellington was told today.
Justice Denis Clifford sentenced Gordon John Tui, 46, to eight years in jail for wounding Mukter Kadir Wadow with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The judge said Tui had become enraged after a young associate was turned away from The Mill liquor store in Victoria Street for not having identification.
Tui went to the store and stabbed Mr Wadow once in the stomach and once in the back.
Justice Clifford said Wadow was lucky to be alive after the first wound missed his heart by 1cm.
Mr Wadow, a 37-year-old Ethiopian, emigrated to New Zealand in 2001.
When his mother in Ethiopia heard he had been attacked she reportedly fainted and could not be revived, Justice Clifford said.
"This was a severe and serious assault, it was…gratuitous and premeditated."
Justice Clifford adopted a starting point of 10 years' imprisonment but mitigating factors, including a guilty plea, reduced the sentence.
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Crown prosecutor Kate Feltham acknowledged the plea as a mitigating factor but said it came very late - 14 months after the attack.
Defence attorney Tony Rickard-Simms said the plea was late because Tui's understanding on the night of the attack was impaired by alcohol and uncontrolled diabetes.
"When his health improved it soon became apparent that he was responsible and there was no excuse for his behaviour," Mr Rickard-Simms said.
Tui was sentenced to eight years' jail with a non-parole period of four years.
He had two previous assault offences.
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