A grandfather has been sentenced to a year of house arrest after he climbed over a 6-foot glass wall to attack his daughter’s killer in court.
34-year-old Arohaina Henare, daughter of Graham Mokaraka and mother of six, was stabbed by Moses Taua and left to die on November 18, 2022.
Taua, who is currently serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to murder, appeared in court in Napier, New Zealand, for a hearing on September 11 last year.
Mokaraka, 55, had gone to court that day to leave car keys with family members attending the hearing.
Taua was originally scheduled to appear only via video link, but instead sat behind a glass wall in the dock.
When Taua’s upbringing was discussed in court and he was described as a ‘victim of circumstance’, his victim’s father reacted angrily: New Zealand Herald reported.
Mokaraka managed to climb over the glass wall, stepped on the door handle and began attacking Taua, who was handcuffed.
Mokaraka’s shirt was ripped off by a prison guard who tried to restrain him. The guard was thrown to the ground, breaking his kneecap.
Graham Mokaraka’s daughter and mother of six, Arohaina Henare, 34, (pictured), was stabbed and left to die by Moses Taua on November 18, 2022
Three other relatives of Mrs Henare, including her 18-year-old twin sons, also jumped over the wall and joined in the attack.
The twins later pleaded guilty to assault and were sentenced to 12 months of supervised release.
Mokaraka pleaded guilty to assault with intent to injure for the attack on Taua and aggravated assault on the prison guard.
He was sentenced in the same court where Friday’s attack took place, where he is said to have felt “overwhelming anger” when the background of his daughter’s killer was discussed.
Judge Richard Earwaker said on Friday that Mokaraka’s “vigilante justice” could not be tolerated, despite the trauma his family has suffered.
He also has a violent past.
“Your family has been through a tremendous ordeal in all of this and I cannot ignore that fact,” Judge Earwaker said.
‘It was clear that you wanted to take the law into your own hands, and that cannot be condoned or accepted in any way.’
Mokaraka was sentenced to 12 months of house arrest.
Mokaraka was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention by Judge Richard Earwaker on Friday for his ‘vigilante’ behaviour in New Zealand’s Napier District Court (pictured)
Taua was not seriously injured in the attack, but the prison guard has only just returned to work.
The other family member who climbed the wall has since passed away.
Tough murdered Mrs. Henare, who lived in a bedroom on his property, over a disagreement about her move.
The court heard that after drinking alcohol for a day, methamphetamine and cannabis, Taua confronted Ms Henare early in the morning over an earlier scuffle in which she his partner had pushed.
“How dare you touch my wife,” Taua said as he stabbed Mrs Henare in the chest.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2023, with a 10-year unconditional release period.