British Tourist in Napier Attack is Named

Source: Telegraph, UK
By Paul Chapman in Wellington

"A British tourist left fighting for his life in a New Zealand hospital after being assaulted so viciously that police say his attackers' boot marks were left imprinted on his head and face has been named.

Stuart Martin, a 31-year-old from Scotland, is in a coma in Hawke's Bay Hospital with a severe head injury.

His condition is described as critical.

Mr Martin, who has been living in Australia, had flown to the North Island seaside resort of Napier to attend the wedding on Saturday of a friend, Rory McBrearty.

He had been at a stag party when he became separated from the others, and police say he was set upon while walking past shops in the suburb of Taradale about 1am on Friday.

Mr McBrearty, also 31, has been keeping vigil at his comatose friend's hospital bedside.

He said: "I'm pretty upset about it all. It's overwhelming.

"I'm on the verge of a breakdown to tell the truth," he told Wellington's Dominion-Post newspaper.

He said that hospital staff were "not saying much about his condition, but it's pretty serious".

The two have been good friends for more than six years.

He described Mr Martin as "a small, friendly guy who makes friends with everyone".

A badly shaken Mr McBrearty told the newspaper that he and about 20 friends had spent much of Thursday being driven on a pub crawl.

"It was just your normal stag do. It was good. We finished up at a friend's place in Taradale."

No one in the stag party had noticed that Mr Martin was missing until they saw a police cordon around the scene while walking home through the suburb's town centre.

Detectives say they are "appalled" by the extent of his injuries.

They said a witness saw the victim being stomped on the face and head after he was knocked to the ground. The attack left him unconscious in the street.

Detective Sergeant Brian Schaab said: "The witness was unable to intervene but called police as the attack was in progress."

Three 17-year-old local youths have appeared in Napier District Court on Friday and were remanded in custody to reappear on March 4.

The three, named as Darrin Peter Wright, Hamish Glenn Bowman, and Joshua McConville, have all been charged with assault.

Police say further, possibly more serious, charges may follow"

Enough is Enough

Source: ODT, 27 Jun2 2008

"Thousands of Hawke's Bay residents fed up with gang violence marched from Flaxmere to central Hastings today bearing a banner declaring "Enough is Enough".

They banded together in response to a recent spate of violent home invasions and vicious unprovoked attacks in the area, which have been blamed on youth gangs and the Mongrel Mob.

Hastings district councillor Henare O'Keefe organised the 8km hikoi after masked men wearing red bandannas attacked his daughter's 21-year-old partner and forced their way into her home calling out "where's your missus?"

She was forced to hide her eight-week-old baby before confronting the men, who then left, apparently because she was not the person they were seeking, Mr O'Keefe told NZPA.

The turnout for the march was sensational, with people from all walks of life taking part, he said.

"Every class was represented on that hikoi. The fact that they turned up like that speaks volumes.

"If you saw this community today marching down the street and you were a perpetrator of crime, you would have to take notice."

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule, who spoke during the hikoi, said people were sick of gang violence and the day offered them a chance to express their frustration.

"I've certainly had enough of it and I gave a very strong message to the gangs that they need to behave themselves because people are not going to tolerate the sort of violence we have seen in the past four weeks. It's against innocent people and it's unprovoked," he told NZPA....."

"All you can do is steal, rob, drink and smoke to fill in the time"

Source: Stuff.co.nz

"An organised brawl in Flaxmere was more about gang tensions than a rivalry between two high schools, says a 15-year-old witness who was hit by police pepper spray during the melee.

Flaxmere College pupil Rachel Walker said the fight, which attracted an estimated 200 young people, had been pre-arranged between pupils from her school and Hastings Boys High School at Flaxmere skate bowl on Tuesday.

Speaking at the the scene of the brawl yesterday, she was matter of fact about the reason for the confrontation. "It's basically girls, territory, colours and gangs."

Flaxmere College had the Bloods and Hastings Boys were Crips, she said.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule held a meeting with police and both school principals yesterday in the wake of the brawl, in which police officers were attacked. He said there were gang issues in Flaxmere but he had been assured the fight was nothing more than inter-school rivalry.

There was a heavy police presence near Flaxmere College as school ended yesterday, but no sign of trouble as groups of uniformed pupils stood around smoking and giving gangsta-style handshakes.

Rachel said she saw one youth during the fight "punch a police face and he got knocked down. It took six of them to put him down".

She was trying to pull a friend away as a police officer threatened to use pepper spray. "I got pepper-sprayed in the eye. I felt like a bad person. It's still sore.

She said that, though the fight was pre-arranged, there was no time to start it "properly" and most of the pupils had already abandoned it when police arrived. The brawlers then fled, leaving police to set about dispersing the crowd of cheering and jeering spectators.

Rachel said the trouble was that the district was too small. "All you can do is steal, rob, drink and smoke to fill in the time.

"Lots of teens go around causing trouble - robberies and bashing people. They just learn it from the community and they don't know when to stop. Even the little kids are picking it up from the teens."