By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A man has been jailed after a violent rampage with a tribal spear in a Narre Warren neighbourhood followed by two days of wild driving in a stolen car through Melbourne’s South-East.
Kimiora Haenga, 26, had no recollection of the mayhem on the afternoon of 17 February, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court was told.
In that time, he stole a neighbour’s car, smashed up four houses and attacked a 60-year-old woman checking for mail at her letterbox.
Haenga yelled at the woman to “go back inside”, called her a “fat mole” and struck her twice across the back with the three-foot wooden spear with a metal head.
He shattered every front window of her house and kicked down a side fence as she hid in her locked ensuite.
Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Gary van der Poel said the woman was terrified to return to her house after being treated in hospital for bruising.
Haenga later swung the spear at a $15,000 Rodeo ute, then stole it as the owner inspected the windows smashed at his house.
Behind the wheel, the accused refused to stop for police, driving through a wooden fence in Honeyeater Grove.
Police didn’t pursue him due to his “dangerous and erratic” driving, the court was told.
Over the next two days, police called off two other pursuits of Haenga.
On 18 February, he failed to stop at a red light and nearly collided with a Royal Flying Doctor’s Ambulance in Eumerrerring.
The ambulance driver followed Haenga, until the accused smashed the ambulance’s side mirror with the spear while he was stopped at traffic lights.
As the driver drove away on the bypass, Haenga rammed the ambulance three times from behind.
“He’s ramming me, he’s ramming me,” the driver told a police operator on the phone.
“I’ve gotta go, I’ve gotta go. Please help me.”
The next day, Haenga was arrested with cannabis in his pocket in a Narre Warren backyard. He was then admitted as an involuntary patient at Casey Hospital.
Haenga had been admitted to the hospital’s psych wing the month before the rampage. He left the hospital on day release on 28 January and did not return.
While on bail, on 14 August, Haenga yelled at seven uniformed police officers on foot patrol as he drove past on Spencer Street Docklands.
Police requested him to pull over and produce his licence.
He laughed at police, and said he “didn’t feel like pulling over today”.
“Get f***ed,” he said as he screeched a burnout and drove off at speed, the court was told.
Later that night, police tried to intercept Haenga on Princes Highway Mulgrave. Haenga reversed, drove over a nature strip and threw a stubby at the divisional van.
Six minutes later, he erratically side-swiped a parked police car that was impounding another car in a Princes Highway service lane. He caused a minor knee injury to a police officer.
In his attempt to flee, Haenga drove through two red lights and rammed a car in a KFC drive-through.
Earlier that night, he also stole an $86 bottle of cognac from a Dandenong North bottle shop.
He was again arrested with cannabis in his pocket. After his arrest, he spat at police, kicked his cell door several times and refused a breath test.
On 28 November, magistrate Julie O’Donnell said Haenga was difficult to sentence over the list of 29 charges including reckless conduct endangering life, assault with a weapon and dangerous driving.
Up until his mental health issues last year, he’d lived a good life without criminal history, and still had loving support from family and friends.
Haenga remained delusional and “coming off a period of psychosis” even after 105 days in pre-sentence detention, Ms O’Donnell noted.
There was no telling if the psychosis would end or if it would have to be managed, the court had been told.
“To this day, Mr Haenga does not understand what he has done,” Ms O’Donnell said.
“He is incapable of having any insight at all into the risk he is to the community.
“These are some of the most serious offences we see (at a magistrates’ court).”
Haenga’s “risk” couldn’t be managed on a community corrections order, Ms O’Donnell said. Stricter paole supervision was required.
Haenga was jailed for up to two years, with a 12-month non-parole period. He was disqualified from driving for two years.
