A Dunedin boarding-house dweller who stabbed a fellow resident in the buttock has been jailed for more than two years.
Despite being found guilty of wounding with intent to injure following a jury trial at the Dunedin District Court, 39-year-old Vashneel Chand maintained he was framed.
He claimed those present at the birthday celebration on April 18, 2021, lied to protect the true culprit but Judge Michael Turner said the evidence against him was "overwhelming".
The court heard a group of residents were drinking at the property before heading into town.
Witnesses gave evidence of Chand’s "strange and disruptive" behaviour, which included taking others’ drinks, and when they returned to the boarding house he was told to go to his room.
The victim later saw him in a courtyard and reiterated her desires that he retire for the night.
When she turned to walk away, she heard Chand issue an expletive then felt a blow to her right buttock, which she initially thought was a punch.
She was unaware that sometime during the night the defendant had retrieved a large wood-handled knife from the kitchen.
A witness told the jury they saw Chand approach the victim at speed and aim the blow with "a fast arm action".
When the woman’s son was searching for a first aid kit to tend to her wound, he saw the defendant hiding by some rubbish bins.
Police later attended the scene and found the weapon there.
The judge said jurors rightly rejected Chand’s version of events — that he was thrust into the spotlight because people were scared to implicate the real stabber.
He continued to push that angle when interviewed by Probation before sentencing and he was backed by his family, none of whom had attended the party.
They believed the conspiracy against Chand was motivated by a desire to cover up drug dealing at the address.
However, Judge Turner noted the issue of drugs had never been raised during the trial.
He called it "gratuitous violence" and said there had to have been an element of premeditation in the man’s acts.
"The only available inference was that you took possession [of the knife] after the altercations because you felt aggrieved."
Counsel Adriana Pinnock stressed her client’s lack of previous convictions and filed several references on her Chand’s behalf, one of which was from the boarding-house owner who said he had been a good tenant.
The judge said that was difficult to reconcile with the fact he had stabbed one of his neighbours.
The court heard the victim had been stitched up at hospital but there had been no long-term consequences.
Chand was jailed for 27 months.
