Face bite victim disappointed with appeal (graphic content)
STEVE HOPKINS
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Crime
A man who had a chunk of his face bitten off in a road rage incident is ''disappointed'' he has been labelled the aggressor by his attacker in a bid to reduce his jail sentence.
Kenneth Gordon McDonald was found guilty in 2010 of assault with intent to injure and wounding with intent to injure and was sentenced to two years and three months jail.
On Boxing Day, 2008, Nik Mimilo was driving towards Mission Bay when Kenneth Gordon McDonald crossed the road infront of him in an intoxicated state.
Mimilo, talking about the incident for the very first time, said he beeped at McDonald who was ''taking his time''.
McDonald then chased the car ''yelling and screaming'', so Mimilo, who weighed 150kg at the time and had his two nephews, aged 23 and 17 with him, got out to try to settle him down.
''He just started throwing all these punches at me and I thought, 'what the heck dude, are you really going to take me on'?,'' the pastor said.
Along with the older nephew, Mimilo forced McDonald to the ground then they returned to his car.
When McDonald then ''hammer fisted'' the bonnet of Mimilo's car he got out again and put him in a ''bear hug to try and get him on the ground''.
''Then he bit my face and just never let go. I didn't know he was biting my face at first, I guess the adrenalin was just going... then he just ran off,'' Mimilo recalled.
''My nephew started screaming at me. Blood was pouring from my face. I looked in the rearview mirror and realised there was a hole in my face.
''It was half a centimetre away from my jugular. If it was someone older or smaller they could have been killed.''
Mimilo said they called police, but while waiting for them to arrive tried to find McDonald. While searching they saw a police car and flagged it down.
''He (McDonald) was arrested at Shell. He was eating a meat pie. They sold a pie to a man with blood all over his mouth and face.''
Mimilo had his cheek sewn back together but couldn't chew for six months and had to wear bandages over his face, something that made his bank manager job and pastor training ''somewhat embarrassing''.
McDonald later appealed his conviction saying there was a miscarriage of justice. He said the jury's verdicts were unreasonable and were not supported by the evidence.
He acknowledged in submissions to the Court of Appeal that he was guilty of wounding and "perhaps even of assault" but claimed Mimilo was the aggressor and he was the victim.
He claimed Mimilo "stopped the car to have a go at me".
McDonald said the jury could not rationally have determined a number of conflicts in the evidence of the prosecution witnesses which he'd identified, so could not have been satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that he was not acting in self-defence.
The appeals court judges, in a recently released decision, said there was no merit in McDonalds appeal against conviction and dismissed it. McDonald's appeal against sentence was abandoned in June last year.
Mimilo, who now lives in Melbourne and is a pastor at the City on the Hill church, said he was ''disappointed'' McDonald had claimed he was the aggressor given he'd acknowledged his crimes and was remorseful before sentencing.
''So this (the appeal) was like all this stuff he had written to us was a bunch of lies.''
- © Fairfax NZ News
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