Use of knife to slay taxi driver part of a trend

BY IAN STEWARD

The stabbing death of Christchurch taxi driver Abdulrahman Ikhtiari highlights an alarming trend towards knife crime among New Zealand youth, authorities say.

Shannon David Boyes-Warren, 17, was yesterday sentenced to life in prison with a 15½ year non-parole period for the Afghan immigrant's murder on December 5, 2008.

His accomplice, Randell Wiremu Legion Brown, 20, was sentenced to five years six months for manslaughter.

During the sentencing at the High Court in Christchurch, it emerged that hours after "shanking" Ikhtiari and leaving him to die in the street, the pair got another taxi home and attacked the driver.

Boyes-Warren struck the driver in the face, and the pair ran off without paying.

By then the knife had been disposed of, and the taxi driver received only minor injuries.

Police and youth support agencies said the two incidents showed the difference between violence when a knife was present and when it was not.

"As soon as you make the decision to put that knife in your pocket you're opening the door to things going drastically wrong," Christchurch police youth services Senior Sergeant John Robinson said.

While "anyone carrying a knife is an issue", it was the combination with alcohol that really caused problems, he said.

Police statistics show charges in Canterbury for possession of a knife in a public place have increased 85 per cent since 2001.

Yesterday's sentencing, before Justice French, heard that Boyes-Warren had taken a concealed knife with a 13-centimetre blade into the city.

The judge said the crime was not about money – they had used Ikhtiari's taxi to get home and pick up cash and Boyes-Warren had $380 in his pocket.

Boyes-Warren asked Ikhtiari to stop on Worcester St near his father's house, where he later fled and disposed of the knife.

He got out, opened the driver's door and attacked Ikhtiari with the knife.

Brown, in the back seat, put his arms round Ikhtiari and pinned him to his seat from behind.

The father of five, who moved to New Zealand so his family could have a safer life, was stabbed multiple times in the legs and once, fatally, in the chest.

The pair ran off in separate directions, but met and went into the city to continue drinking.

They were heard boasting of "shanking a taxi driver" in nightclubs.

The judge said the attack was "cowardly and senseless".

Ikhtiari was "a man of courage and honour" who was described as "gentle, kind and caring".

"He was forced to leave his homeland for trying to educate children. He was separated from his family for four years."

His widow's victim-impact statement spoke of her despair.

"Her life has been destroyed. Her anger towards you is beyond words," the judge said.

Mark Zarifeh, for the Crown, said aggravating factors included the use of a weapon, Ikhtiari's vulnerability, the fact both were strong young men attacking an older man, and that the killing occurred during the commission of a serious crime.

Boyes-Warren had a long list of offences in the Youth Court, many for violence, while Brown had one conviction for smashing a bottle over a stranger's head two months before the murder.

Brown's lawyer, Pip Hall argued that his client did not know Boyes-Warren had a knife and, being in the back seat, he did not know what was occurring.

However, he accepted that he had seen the knife during the attack and had kept holding the victim.

Boyes-Warren's lawyer, Elizabeth Bulger, said the crime probably would not have happened if the pair had not been drinking.

The manager of Christchurch youth-support agency YCD, Anni Watkin, said she had noticed a trend of taking knives to public places.

There was so much publicity about violence in the inner city that many young people were carrying knives for protection.

"Certainly, when they are carrying knives they are not foreseeing it may bring on a really violent interaction."

Justice Minister Simon Power recently ordered a report into knife crime.

Principal Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft said last night increases in knife crime overseas were causing concern, and New Zealand should be aware it might face a more significant issue here.

"We know whenever there is possession of a knife it turns what could be a confrontation without consequences, to literally a life and death issue."

- © Fairfax NZ News