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

Mouseover links for full page descriptions

Offender Databases Evan Wrathall

Evan Bradley Wrathall

Alias

.

Offences

Assaulted a Waitara man with intent to injure him in August 2008

Victims

.

Offender Affiliations

Rawiri Makatea

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1979

Current Location

At large

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to 5 months home detention and 275 hours community work in September 2009

Background
Taranaki Daily News, 5th September 2009
Makatea's co-offender, Evan Bradley Wrathall, 30, of Waitara, was sentenced to five months' home detention and 275 hours' community work. He admitted before trial a charge of assault with intent to injure after he punched Mr Spittal several times in the head and stomped on his chest.

Taranaki Daily News, 25th July 2009
A Waitara man faces up to 14 years in jail after being found guilty of stabbing another man five times with a broken bottle at a party last year.

In a unanimous verdict, the New Plymouth District Court jury of six men and six women decided in less than three hours that Rawiri David Mathew Makatea, 22, was guilty of all three charges: Wounding Daniel Spittal with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm, assaulting him and wounding Merekahe Goodwin with reckless disregard for her safety.

Makatea had stabbed Ms Goodwin on her eyelid when she and others went to rescue Spittal from Makatea's frenzied attack. Earlier, Judge Allan Roberts quashed Makatea's plea of self-defence. "I have determined that self-defence is not a defence that the accused can avail himself of," the judge told the jury. "I'm telling you to disregard it."

In closing, Crown prosecutor, James Gurnick, said that Mr Spittal was a very lucky man to have survived the attack at the party in Waitara on August 16, 2008. The doctor giving evidence had said it would have been catastrophic if a deep cut near the carotid artery on the back of his neck or nerves had been severed, Mr Gurnick said.

For the defence, Julian Hannam said the cut to Ms Goodwin was nothing more than an accident. "It is something he did not set out to do." Ms Goodwin had put herself into the line of fire which was not something Makatea could have foreseen, Mr Hannam said.

In summing up, Judge Roberts asked the jury to take its time in making its decision. The law now allowed for a majority verdict of a one-to-11 split, "but ideally we should be working towards unanimity". If they returned too early with a split he had directions to send them back, the judge said.

When the verdict was returned at 4pm, Judge Roberts remanded Makatea in custody until September 4 when both Makatea and co-accused, Evan Bradley Wrathall, 30, also of Waitara, would be sentenced. Wrathall had earlier changed his plea to one of guilty of assault with intent to injure Mr Spittal. Outside court, Mr Spittal, who attended most of the trial with his partner, said he was pleased and relieved with the jury's decision after waiting nearly a year for the case to be heard.

---

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