Swade James Davis, 29, was back at the scene of the crime yesterday — this time appearing by video link from Auckland Prison where he is a maximum-security inmate.
Davis was jailed for five years and one month in August for a violent armed burglary but at the conclusion of the hearing, he refused to leave the dock.
Corrections staff attempted to usher him through a door down to the cells but the defendant "puffed his chest and clenched his fists".
"F... you," he yelled.
The victim, a police officer on court-escort duties, attempted to persuade him to stand down but Davis was in a defiant mood.
"What the f... are you going to do?" he asked the officer.
Davis then lurched forward, pushing past a Corrections officer using the "momentum of his whole body" to aim a punch at the constable’s face.
"A loud audible thump was heard by other persons in the courtroom on impact," a prosecution summary said.
Davis was restrained by officials and dragged down to the cells.
Judge David Robinson said the punch of the officer was "calculated and delivered with very considerable force".
"You certainly put your body behind it," he said.
CCTV footage of his reaction was telling, the judge said.
Davis shared high-fives and handshakes with another defendant.
"You were laughing and appeared to be showing off about what you’d done," the judge said.
The court heard the victim sustained a broken cheekbone which required reconstructive surgery.
He suffered headaches, trouble eating and now bore a large scar on his head.
"The way he looked at me wasn’t human," the victim said in a statement.
"I could sense he wanted to cause me serious harm."
He had taken five weeks off work and was worried about rebuilding his confidence — "all because he did no more than his duty to keep us safe", Judge Robinson said.
Davis later admitted to police he wanted to escape the courtroom, attack the judge or anyone who got in his way.
The defendant had previously acknowledged his anti-authority streak and put it down to trauma as a child.
When he saw someone in uniform he "loses it", he told Probation.
His criminal record reinforced that.
In the last decade he had assaulted police on three occasions and had racked up convictions for resisting arrest and intimidation.
Counsel Anselm Williams said his client’s liberty had been severely curtailed by his transfer to Paremoremo.
Now serving a sentence of more than seven years, he would likely be there for a significant period, the lawyer said.
