Regan Robson-Khan was 18 when he assaulted Wynton King during a brawl outside a Christchurch bar last October, leaving the other man "fighting for his life" in an induced coma.
The court heard victim impact statements from King’s mother and sisters, read out by a support person.
King’s sister Sierra recalled the feeling of complete fear and paralysis when looking at her little brother’s scans as the medical team broke the news that they would turn off his life support.
They said the trauma the 29-year-old suffered was too severe to live with and he would never be the same person or be able to walk or talk again.
Miraculously, her brother began to recover, but will never be fully independent as he once was, she said.
She said there was a strong possibility King would never regain his ability to retain short-term information, meaning he won’t be able to build new relationships.
She would never accept Robson-Khan’s actions that left her 29-year-old brother incapacitated were "just an accident".
She asked the judge to please consider what her brother had lost when sentencing Robson-Khan.
King’s mother Heather retold the horror of receiving a call from a police officer at 2am shortly after her son was assaulted.
She was told King had been assaulted and was in a coma. Her heart sank and she began to cry, trying to process what the officer was saying.
When she arrived at the hospital no one could tell her if her son would live or die, and he was in a coma for two weeks that seemed to "last an eternity".
King’s mother said the family planned his funeral which was extremely traumatic for everyone, as his breathing tube was removed by medical staff when it was looking like he wouldn’t recover.
She said King’s memory, processing, and conversational skills were impacted by the assault and he can no longer play rugby. He also lost his job, and his apprenticeship and won’t be able to hold a driver’s licence.
King’s other sister Amber said while her little brother was alive, "surviving isn’t living" and he’d had to learn to walk and talk again.
She said King was robbed of spending Christmas and New Year’s with his family, because he was still in hospital following the assault.
She said King would often forget she had visited him and call her immediately after she left as if he hadn’t seen her.
She said even six months on from the assault the pain and suffering still weighed heavily on her family. She and her mother had to resign from their jobs to care for and support King, which created a financial burden.
While Amber had sympathy for Robson-Khan’s family, she said it felt like wasted breath speaking about the effects his "coward punch" has had on King as no one could imagine the devastating impacts it’s had.
On the night of the assault Robson-Khan was at the Rockpool Bar.
He was heavily intoxicated after earlier polishing off a bottle of Malibu Rum, the summary of facts stated.
A Rockpool spokesperson confirmed the teen and his friends did not purchase any alcohol while they were at the bar.
Around 12.15am, a fight broke out outside the bar and spilled across the street. As the brawl grew in numbers, the offender joined in and began to swing punches at several people.
While security staff and bystanders attempted to intervene, a man receiving help from a member of security copped six punches to the head by Regan-Khan.
The victim fell to the ground in a foetal position, and the offender was restrained by security.
But as the brawl subsided, Regan-Khan remained angry and agitated. Several people, including King, who was unknown to the offender, tried to calm him down.
Soon after, he made a beeline for King, who was focused on something else at the time and delivered a punch to the right side of his face.
King was knocked unconscious as he fell and hit his head on the footpath.
Regan-Khan fled the scene and continued to pick fights with people in the area until police could locate him, and he was arrested.
When spoken to by police about his first victim, Regan-Khan claimed he was a trained fighter and was "just swinging... doing what he needed to do."
He said he could not remember assaulting King.
King was rushed to hospital in critical condition and was placed in an induced coma. Scans showed a large subdermal brain bleed and a fractured skull.
A Givealittle page was set up by King’s family which garnered more than $33,000 in support of his recovery.
Robson-Khan pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding with intent to injure and assaulting with intent to injure in January this year.
During sentencing, lawyer Rupert Ward said his client had never been in trouble before and asked the judge to impose a sentence of community detention.
Ward said it was important to say how remorseful Robson-Khan was, but "nothing can take back from the injury that the victim suffered... nothing can make that better".
Robson-Khan didn’t have the slightest idea his actions would have the consequences they had, and it was "split-second decision-making".
Judge Tony Couch declined Ward’s request to let his client keep his name secret due to his youth.
Judge Couch said Robson-Khan could have simply walked away from the fighting which involved people he didn’t know, but he chose to engage in violence.
The judge gave the teen discounts for his guilty pleas, his youth, and his remorse arriving at an end sentence of nine months’ home detention with standard post-detention conditions for six months.
He imposed special conditions such as not consuming alcohol and taking part in courses that would help change his lifestyle.
- Emily Moorhouse, Open Justice reporter
