Wed, 04 Nov 2009 9:52a.m.
An elderly couple whose campervan was smashed up by about a gang of around 20 young people have had their confidence ruined , a judge said .
The couple, in their 70s, were sleeping in the van in the Warrington Domain, 32km northeast of Dunedin, earlier this year when the gang rocked and smashed the vehicle, jumped on its roof and threw bottles through its windows.
Gary Michael Davies, 20, Jamie Moses Ngaamo, 24, Marc Weir Mitchell, 24, and Darryl Johnathon Wadsworth, 18, pleaded guilty in Dunedin District Court yesterday to intentionally damaging the campervan.
The vehicle sustained $17,250 worth of damage in the "complete and sustained" attack, Judge Emma Smith said.
The elderly campers, aged 73 and 76, suffered ongoing medical difficulties and physiological ramifications, Judge Smith said.
"It was their first trip in their dream campervan. They talk of the distress of the attack, of how frenzied it was, their vulnerability and how frightened they were," she said.
Davies, who was on intensive supervision for other offences at the time of the attack, was jailed for 10 months jail.
Ngaamo and Mitchell both received nine-month sentences.
Wadsworth, who was only 17 at the time and had few previous convictions, was sentenced to home detention of five months.
The four men were ordered to pay $4312.70 each in reparations to the couple.
NZPA