WARNING: This story contains some crime scene images

A patched Mongrel Mob member’s family said he was “left for dead” in the corner of a shed, where he was found bashed and bleeding from his head by his 12-year-old son.

Aramu Rangi was today sentenced to imprisonment for the violent attack, during which he repeatedly hit Mark Walker’s head with a hammer.

The Crown alleged Rangi attacked Walker at his home in Ruatoki, south of Whakatāne, because he wanted to avenge the Mob-related killing of Meihana Mason, with whom Rangi had a strong whānau connection.

A victim impact statement read by Crown prosecutor Tobias Taane, on behalf of Walker’s whānau, said while he survived the attack, the man they knew was gone.

Walker’s son had memories of his father’s skull “smashed open and bleeding profusely on the shed floor”.

“You left that 12-year-old boy holding his father with life-threatening injuries ... He lost his childhood that day.”

Walker now has a metal plate in his skull, and can only eat soft foods and soups.

“You used the hammer to deliver life-threatening blows to Mark’s skull, causing the skull to shatter into minute pieces,” they said.

“You attacked him in the shed and left him for dead.”

Aramu Rangi, 38, was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court to nine years' imprisonment for a violent attack on Mongrel Mob member Mark Walker.

After the attack Walker was taken inside the house and up to the bathroom where whānau brought “towel after towel after towel, until there were no towels left, to help stop the bleeding”.

“You left his partner with a Mark that now requires 24/7 care and the relationship’s changed from husband and wife, to mother and child.”

Walker suffers from seizures and suffers headaches so severe he can’t walk.

He has paranoia, is constantly cold, and doesn’t sleep for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. He could no longer be left to care for his children or do activities with them.

Despite this, the whānau said they were “determined not to carry a revengeful heart” and were a “forgiving whānau”.

‘One-out’ gone too far, or avenging attack?

Rangi was found guilty by a jury last September on a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Judge Bill Lawson said the facts established at trial were that the now 38-year-old had arrived at Walker’s house in February 2022, where he was invited into a shed often used for social gatherings and entertainment.

The shed was used for gatherings and entertainment, and was the scene of the violent attack on Mark Walker whose son found him bleeding in the corner.

From there, it wasn’t clear exactly what happened.

Rangi’s account was that they’d had an agreed “one-out”, or agreed fight, and at its conclusion, Walker had got up and attacked Rangi further, after Rangi had turned his back.

Rangi’s lawyer Nephi Pukepuke said his client accepted things had “gone too far” and excessive self-defence had been used.

However, Judge Lawson did not accept that and said evidence given at trial, and supported by the jury’s guilty verdict, pointed to the Crown’s case that Rangi went to Walker’s with a motive.

He believed Walker to have been involved in the Mongrel Mob-related killing of Meihana Mason, a man it’s understood Rangi thought of as an uncle.

Walker had been spoken to by police in connection to Mason’s death twice when the investigation was under way.

The judge said the evidence at trial pointed to Rangi retrieving a hammer from his car and returning to the shed, where blood spatter patterns analysed by ESR showed Walker had been seated in a chair when he suffered multiple blows to the back of his head.

Judge Lawson did not accept there had been any element of self-defence, excessive or otherwise.

The Crown said there was an element of victim vulnerability, given Walker had been seated in the chair and the attack was unprovoked.

The judge paid particular attention to the ESR evidence which analysed the blood splatter, and pointed to Mark Walker having been seated when he was attacked in the head with a hammer.

However, Judge Lawson said Walker had been an able-bodied man, and a patched Mongrel Mob member at the time, so victim vulnerability was not a factor.

He did consider Rangi’s level of violence and the “sheer anger” involved, and considered the use of a weapon, attacks to the head, and pre-meditation as aggravating factors.

He also noted the severity of the injuries which “spoke volumes”.

He set a starting point at 10 years' imprisonment.

The judge gave Rangi a 10% discount to take into account cultural factors, including early exposure to gang culture and violence in his upbringing.

The discount also took into account the impact the sentence would have on Rangi’s young children.

He received an end sentence of nine years' imprisonment.

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.