A 20-year-old who severed a Hamilton dairy shop employee's thumb during a robbery while high on meth, has been sentenced to eight years and four months in prison.
Trayd Tahau's chopped off the Nabin's thumb with a machete when the victim pleaded for his life during the robbery at Irvine St Dairy in Hamilton on December 17, 2022.
As he announced the sentence on February 20, Judge Glen Marshall also ruled Tahau cannot claim parole for more than half of his total imprisonment duration, noting the man had been involved in a series of aggravated robberies.
During the robbery at the Kiwi-Indian dairy store, Tahau and three others entered the store and made off with cigarettes worth $15,000, according to a report in New Zealand Herald. A passerby who heard Nabin's screams and tried to intervene narrowly escaped a swing of Tahau's machete.
Tahau was on an electronically-monitored bail for a previous aggravated robbery when the incident happened. It took police six more weeks to arrest him in Palmerston North after carjacking at gunpoint.
Nabin told the court although his thumb was reattached, it had limited function, requiring assistance for daily tasks, adding it might take one to two years to regain full use of his hand, if at all.
Tahau's lawyers pitched for a 60 per cent reduction in sentence on the grounds that he suffered from ADHD and came from troubled background.
ISSUE
