escalating violence in our community Become a member of the Sensible Sentencing Trust

Mouseover links for full page descriptions

Offender Databases Ricky Tirikatene

Ricky Tirikatene

Alias

.

Offences

Home invasion, assault and threatening to kill of a Christchurch man in early 2006

Victims

.

Offender Affiliations

Graham Dyer

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1970

Current Location

Unknown

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to 15 months imprisonment in August 2006
Deferred for 2 months to apply for home detention

Background
NZ Herald story here
From NZ Lawyer August 2006
A North Canterbury Maori elder may be able to avoid serving jail time after invading a home and bashing the householder with a chair, apparently as retribution in a long-standing family dispute. Ricky Tirikatene, 36, is a horse trainer and volunteer fireman in the community at Tuahiwi, North Canterbury, and his whanau was in Christchurch District Court for his sentencing before Judge Michael Lance. The family was in tears and Tirikatene was weeping as he was led away briefly while the paperwork was done for his immediate release. "I love you, babe," he called to the back of the court.

He and his co-offender, Graham John Dyer, have two months before their 15-month jail sentences begin, to apply to the Parole Board to serve their time on home detention rather than in prison. Tirikatene had admitted charges of burglary, assault, and threatening to kill. Dyer, a 35-year-old foreman from Belfast, near Christchurch, pleaded guilty to burglary and threatening to kill. Both men expressed their regret over the incident. "There was a background of retribution relating to a perceived wrong done to the victim's child. It is a clear impression I had formed that there had been ongoing bad feeling about that," Judge Lance said.

Both men had been drinking on the day, and at 10.35pm they went to the victim's house, forced their way in to confront the man while his family was at the house. They both threatened him, and Tirikatene bashed him with a chair. He was still holding the weapon when the police arrived. Tirikatene's counsel, David Ruth, said he had handed up references which "speak volumes for this man and show how out of character it was". "He has reached an important status level within his iwi and is regarded as a senior member and elder," he told the court. Judge Lance ordered the men to undergo alcohol and drug assessment, counselling, and treatment as required as their prison terms ended. "People are entitled to be in their homes, unmolested by the likes of you, breaking in drunk, bent on trouble and violence," he said.

---

Corrections and Additional Information
We endeavour to make this database as accurate as possible, but we are at the mercy of whatever information we can find in various online and offline archives. We rely on the public - that is, people like you - to fill in the gaps that we cannot. If you wish to submit additional information or a correction to this file CLICK HERE . Privacy: Trust policy is that all sources are treated as strictly confidential unless we are explicitly told otherwise. If you wish to see a file removed from this database certain conditions must be met by the offender set out HERE Note that this does NOT apply for those that are the primary offender in a murder, rape, or any sexual offending involving minors. We do not enter into correspondence regarding the guilt/innocence of offenders. Such correspondence is not responded to, especially if the offender concerned has a number of prior convictions

Back to Top