R v Tongia Halisi Heaki

District Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:

R v Tongia Halisi Heaki [2021] NSWDC 297

Hearing dates:

4 June 2021

Decision date:

02 July 2021

Jurisdiction:

Criminal

Before:

Mahony SC DCJ

Decision:

Full-time custodial sentence. For orders see [108]

Catchwords:

One count of reckless grievous bodily harm; one count of destroy or damage property less than $2000 in value.

Legislation Cited:

Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999

Crimes Act 1900

Criminal Procedure Act 1986

Cases Cited:

Culbert v R [2021] NSWCCA 38

Haoui v R (2008) 188 A Crim R 331; [2008] NSWCCA 209

Mandranis v R [2021] NSWCCA 97

R v Chandler; Chandler v R [2012] NSWCCA 135

R v Rhodes [2017] NSWSC 694

Swan v R [2016] NSWCCA 79

Waterfall v R [2019] NSWCCA 281

Category:

Sentence

Parties:

Director of Public Prosecutions (Crown)
Tongia Halisi Heaki (Offender)

Representation:

Counsel:
K McKenzie (Solicitor)
P Johnson (Counsel)

File Number(s):

20/124362

REMARKS ON SENTENCE

1. The offender is to be sentenced for one count of reckless grievous bodily harm in company pursuant to s 35(1) of the Crimes Act 1900 for an offence that occurred on 26 April 2020. The maximum penalty for the offence is 14 years imprisonment and there is a standard non-parole period of 5 years imprisonment.

2. A related offence pursuant to a certificate under s 166 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 is sequence 2, destroy or damage property less than $2000. The maximum penalty for that offence is two years imprisonment and/or a fine of 20 penalty units.

3. The offender was arrested on 26 April 2020 and has been in custody since that date. He was born on 15 September 1982 and the co-offender was Naquita Heaki, his wife.

The sentence hearing

4. The sentence hearing took place on 4 June 2021. The Crown sentence summary became Ex A, and it included an agreed statement of facts which may be summarised as follows.

5. The offender and his wife lived in premises at Hurstville with their three children aged between four and nine years of age. On the evening of Saturday 25 April 2020 the co-offender’s sister, Eryka Hakaraie, arrived to babysit the three children overnight.

6. The next morning the offender and co-offender returned home. At approximately 9am, Eryka observed her sister to be in an agitated state. The co-offender told Eryka that the offender was concerned that something had happened to their friend Astrid and that they were trying to contact Astrid but that she was not responding. Thereafter, Eryka observed both the offender and co-offender to engage in manic behaviour and discuss an unknown male person who they thought had hurt their friend Astrid. The co-offender described their car which was parked outside their home as a crime scene and when Eryka asked “what’s going on?” the co-offender said “we think our friend T is dead in the car”.

7. The offender then opened the doors of the car and boot and removed items from it. The co-offender was hysterical, yelling “call the cops, call the cops”,…