Judge imposes jail to protect late night workers
A judge has taken a strong stand to protect vulnerable late night workers such as bus and taxi drivers.
He has jailed Julyan Heiden Rauhihi for 16 months for beating and robbing a Redbus driver who was actually trying to help the 24-year-old and his group of friends.
“I find I am compelled to impose a deterrent sentence to condemn this sort of offending,” said Judge Noel Walsh in the Christchurch District Court.
He refused to grant home detention. “The only appropriate sentence is one of imprisonment to signal the court’s abhorrence of such offending against persons who work in vulnerable occupations, such as bus and taxi drivers, in the expectation that they can trust consumers to treat them with respect and not with violence.”
Rauhihi and his four friends flagged down a bus at 11.20pm on a Friday night in August, in Broughham Street, near the Waltham Road intersection. The driver tried to help them get the right bus service for Papanui, but as they filed off one of the group grabbed cash from the cash box and ran.
As the driver tried to get out of his seat to chase him, Rauhihi stood in his way and pushed him back into his seat. When the driver tried to call the police, Rauhihi pushed him into the footwell and punched him repeatedly. He then dragged him out of the bus and onto the footpath before returning to the bus and taking the cashbox which contained about $150.
The driver received grazes and bruises.
Defence counsel Peter Dyhrberg said Rauhihi had written a letter of apology to the driver in which he said he had been immature and had acted stupidly. He was asking for a home detention sentence but wrote to the judge saying he would “accept any punishment handed down to me, even if it’s more imprisonment”.
Judge Walsh said it was an unprovoked and prolonged attack. The pre-sentence report identified regular binge drinking as being a factor in Rauhihi’s offending. He noted that Rauhihi was willing to undertake treatment for alcohol and cannabis use.
Rauhihi admitted charges of assault to allow another person to get away after a theft, robbery of the bus driver, his third breach of community work sentences, and breaching his prison release conditions by not attending a rehabilitation programme.
Judge Walsh imposed a series of cumulative sentences and ordered him to attend assessment and counselling as required for six months after his release. He also gave him a first-strike warning that imposes heavier sentences on repeat violent offenders.
Category: Focus
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