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A teen who took part in a violent and unprovoked street attack, coward-punching one of his victims, has narrowly avoided jail after a judge ruled it would not be the “just” outcome.

Raydin Hunia was sentenced in the this week, where the judge detailed the events that led the now-19-year-old to face serious violence charges.

Hunia, who was then 18, was hanging out with a group of mates on The Strand in Tauranga, early on March 3 last year.

They’d been drinking heavily when they crossed paths with two strangers who had been in town, and were looking for a ride home.

Judge Stephen Coyle said, “for reasons that have never been explained”, Hunia’s “mates” without any provocation began “attacking” the pair.

One of the mates began harassing one of the pair in events that were captured on CCTV footage.

The victim is shown to be backing off with his hands up, which the judge said was “as if to say, chill bro”, but the response by Hunia’s mate was to hit him.

“And your immediate response was rush in and join in the assault,” the judge said to Hunia.

Hunia coward-punched the victim, causing him to fall to the ground.

The judge said there were far too many people who, having acted in the way Hunia did, found themselves before the High Court facing manslaughter “because of a king hit that resulted in someone falling, hitting their head, and being killed”.

When the victim was on the ground, Hunia continued the attack, punching and kicking him to the head.

The CCTV footage shows Hunia being coaxed to leave by one of his group.

He stopped the attack but seconds later, turned around and headed back to continue assaulting both men.

By this time, the two men had made their way to a porch area outside one of the restaurants.

Rather than leave them be, Hunia and his mates continued to attack.

“This was a violent, unnecessary, and unprovoked attack by a group of thugs, including you, on two members of the public who were doing no more than trying to find a ride home,” Judge Coyle said.

“There is no justification and no excuse for what you did.”

One of the men suffered a swollen face, memory loss; the other had cuts to his eyeball and cheek, two broken teeth, a cut tongue, and memory loss among his injuries.

Hunia was charged with injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and injuring with intent to injure.

He pleaded guilty after a sentence indication given earlier this year.

Raydin Hunia was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court this week, on serious violence charges.

The Crown pointed to the “extreme violence” as an aggravating feature of Hunia’s offending.

The judge agreed that the only way to characterise the violence was as “extreme”.

“This wasn’t just fleeting, it wasn’t just a king hit,” said the judge.

“You went away and you came back. You went away again, and you came back again, and again.”

There had been multiple kicks to the head and body, and multiple punches.

The attacks to the head were particularly aggravating, especially given the victims were on the ground.

Judge considers what is ‘just’

The Crown sought a starting point of five years’ imprisonment.

Both the Crown and defence agreed a discount of 20% for Hunia’s guilty plea was appropriate, and the judge adopted a starting point of four years’ and nine months’ imprisonment.

The judge said a clear message needed to be sent, particularly when efforts were being made to revitalise Tauranga’s CBD, that those who came looking for trouble, could expect “an appropriate response”.

Hunia’s lawyer Nephi Pukepuke advocated that this sentencing principle could be achieved by a sentence of home detention.

Judge Coyle reached an end sentence, after applying discounts for guilty plea, youth, and remorse, of two years and 10 months imprisonment.

Pukepuke urged the judge to consider the impact that sending Hunia to prison would have, given his age.

The judge decided that despite it falling outside the two-year window where home detention can be imposed, he would exercise his discretion.

There had been authority given by the higher courts for judges to take a step back and consider what the “just” outcome is.

He said if he sent him to prison he had no doubt he would be surrounded by people who would tear him down and support him in making “bad choices”, convincing him violence and criminal activity were normal.

“I’m not going to do that, Mr Hunia,” Judge Coyle said.

The judge urged him to not become the sort of person who would just “beat the crap” out of someone, but rather would put this mistake behind him and never repeat it.

The judge sentenced him to 12 months home detention, and told him it would be hard for him.

To those who thought of home detention as a “weak sentence”, the judge referred to Covid-19, and the reality of lockdowns.

While people had been able to go out for walks, or to the supermarket, that wouldn’t be the case for Hunia.

“You cannot go out for a walk, you cannot go to the dairy down the road, you cannot go outside of your property.

“That will relax over time, but for you as a young person used to getting out and socialising with your mates, this will be a hard sentence, and it should be.”

Hunia was also ordered to pay emotional harm reparation of $250 for each victim.

The judge told Hunia he’d seen material that showed he was a hard worker and had good qualities, but he had some “thinking to do”.

“I suggest to you that you are better than this, and you have an opportunity to make some changes.”

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at ��һ�ǿ�����. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at ��һ�ǿ�����talk ZB.