Korean knife attacker to leave at end of sentence
Home detention was imposed on a tearful South Korean student who admitted a sudden knife attack which a judge saw as arising from intoxication and a sense of honour.
At the end of his eight-month term at an address in Avonhead, 25-year-old Young Jae Lee is likely to voluntarily leave New Zealand or be deported.
He will then face a term of national military service in Korea which Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish believes could put more structure in his life.
At present she saw him as immature, she said. He had lived in New Zealand from the age of 12, studying at school and university and getting a taste for binge drinking culture.
That led to an incident on January 20, 2011, when he had been drinking heavily, with his sister and her male friend.
The three were sent away from a central city karaoke bar because the sister became intoxicated and fell asleep. When her friend put her to bed, and stayed sitting on the bedroom floor to make sure she was all right, Lee got a large kitchen knife and stabbed him in the top of the head.
Lee immediately cried and apologised.
Judge Farish said the attack arose at the end of a drinking session, most probably out of a sense of honour. He may have become enraged when he saw the male friend helping his sister.
The man received stitches to a large cut on his head, and had small cuts on his arm.
Lee pleaded guilty part way through his second District Court trial, to a reduced charge of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, after it became evident that his proposed defence of a medical condition called Alcohol Idiosyncratic Intoxication did not apply.
Defence counsel Nick Rout said Lee had not drunk at all for three years since the incident because it had frightened him. He had now signed up for six weeks of alcohol rehabilitation counselling, and would also be attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
He urged a home detention sentence. “Prison would be the wrong place for this young man. He is quite immature. He would have difficulties in prison given the cultural issues, and I think he would be a target.”
Judge Farish reduced his sentence for his good record, his age, his three years on restrictive bail conditions, his steps towards rehabilitation, and his guilty plea. He was seen as a low risk of reoffending.
She imposed the eight-month home detention term with a special condition that he undergo the rehabilitation programme as arranged.
Lee was shaking and crying throughout the sentencing, a repeat of the scene in court in July when he pleaded guilty and was remanded on bail for sentence.
Category: News
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