An 18-year-old has been sentenced to home detention for knocking a man out cold on a petrol station forecourt and leaving him there.
Karlin Hairuha Bockman was not involved in the initial confrontation with the victim at the Mosgiel Z station but when he weighed in, the results were instant.
The defendant handed himself into police after two of his associates were arrested and he later admitted a charge of injuring with intent to injure.
At his sentencing last week, the Dunedin District Court heard how Bockman was one of six people squeezed into a car, leaving the forecourt.
The driver almost clipped a man as they were leaving, which made him kick out at the vehicle.
Judge Kevin Phillips said he had watched the CCTV footage of the incident several times and noted how the the car reversed at speed, nearly hitting the man again.
Liam Yardley Currie (20) was the first to jump out of the vehicle and approach the victim. He threw something at the man before the pair squared off, the judge said.
The driver, who cannot be named for legal reasons, then joined the fray and began punching the victim with Currie.
``Your involvement was really totally uncalled for,'' the judge told Bockman.
He, too, got out of the car and grabbed the man.
``You wrestle and pull at the victim then you lean over him and you're holding him down and you deliver a punch to the head,'' Judge Phillips said.
``You hit him hard enough that he immediately falls to the ground . . . he hits his head on the concrete forecourt and is rendered unconscious.''
Before the group left, the driver rifled through the man's pockets.
``You did not assist the victim whatsoever,'' the judge said.
Bockman's counsel, Brian Kilkelly, said his client was ``appalled and ashamed'' with what happened on October 15 last year.
Of the group he was with, he knew only Currie, and in hindsight did not enjoy the company of the driver.
Bockman was so concerned about the negative influence of the company he was keeping, he said, he had moved to Hawke's Bay to live with his father.
He was sentenced to seven months' home detention to be served in Napier and ordered to do 150 hours' community work.
Last month, Currie was sentenced to eight months' home detention and 150 hours' community work.
