The Star: April 20, 2023

The Star Thursday April 20 2023
10
COURT
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Home detention for teen after
punch put man into a coma
• By Emily Moorhouse
A TEEN who “robbed” a man of
his life after a “coward punch”,
leaving the victim to learn to walk
and talk again, has avoided jail.
Regan Robson-Khan was
18 when he assaulted Wynton
King during a brawl outside the
Rockpool Bar in the central city
last October, leaving the other
man “fighting for his life” in an
induced coma.
Robson-Khan appeared at the
district court on Tuesday where
he was sentenced to nine months
of home detention for the attack
on King.
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 shortterm
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 when King was in
hospital he would often forget
she had visited him and call her
immediately after she left as if he
hadn’t seen her.
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 has 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
TRAUMA:
Wynton King
underwent
brain and
jaw surgery
and suffered
a stroke as
a result of
his injuries
following
the assault.
PHOTO: NZ
HERALD
member of security copped six
punches to the head by Robson-
Khan.
The victim fell to the ground
in a foetal position, and the offender
was restrained by security.
But as the brawl subsided,
Robson-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.
Robson-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, Robson-
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 decisionmaking”.
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.
• More court, page 13
This report was produced
by Open Justice – Te Pātītī,
a Public Interest Journalism
initiative funded by NZ on Air
free
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