West Coast man's life wrecked by attack (graphic content)

ATTACKER: Bobby Barnett-Waldron.

BEATEN: Peter Lawrence in hospital after he was attacked in May.

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A teenager beat an elderly man so badly that he will spend the rest of his life in a dementia ward as a "vegetable", a court was told yesterday.

After hitting, kicking and stamping on 74-year-old Peter Lawrence, Bobby Barnett-Waldron started a fire in Lawrence's West Coast home, the High Court in Greymouth was told.

Justice Panckhurst sentenced Barnett-Waldron, 18, to eight years prison for the attack, with a minimum term of five years.

Justice Panckhurst said that on May 5 last year Barnett-Waldron, then 17, went into Lawrence's house in Dobson, near Greymouth.

Lawrence, a familiar figure in the town who enjoyed gardening and visiting the local pub, was watching television.

Barnett-Waldron, a moss picker who knew Lawrence and was also from Dobson, attacked the former railway worker, leaving him with extensive injuries to his face and head and causing bleeding to the brain.

Lawrence also suffered fractured ribs and vertebrae and cuts to his liver. He also lost teeth during the attack.

Barnett-Waldron placed paper on the hob and in the oven before turning them on and leaving Lawrence "unconscious or near to unconscious" in a pool of blood, Justice Panckhurst said.

Lawrence had been "effectively left a vegetable".

His fire alarm alerted neighbours, who dragged him from his house and called for help.

Karen Wallace, 41, of Blenheim, a long-time friend of Lawrence, said that before the attack Lawrence had been fit and active and able to care for himself.

"He would hate the position he is in now, not being able to look after himself for the first time in his adult life," she told the court.

Lawrence is now in a dementia ward, where he needs help with every aspect of his life because of his injuries.

"What is your payoff for what you have done?" she asked Barnett-Waldron.

Defence counsel Rupert Glover said Barnett-Waldron took a small amount of money from Lawrence, but there was no "obvious explanation" why he committed the crime.

The teenager had no previous convictions for violent offences, although he had led police on a car chase from Kaikoura to Greymouth in April last year and been charged with driving offences and possessing a weapon, Glover said.

Barnett-Waldron initially denied attacking Lawrence and said another person had been involved. Last month he pleaded guilty to charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and arson.

He had "incomplete and unsatisfactory schooling" but otherwise was an intelligent young man who expressed himself well, Glover said.

Glover read a letter from Barnett-Waldron in which he apologised to the community. "My memory of what happened that night will never fade," it said.

Glover said Barnett-Waldron claimed he lit the fire so the alarm would attract help.

Justice Panckhurst said he saw the arson as an aggravating feature intended to "cover his tracks".

SAVIOURS EFFORTS TO BE RECOGNISED

Kim Rees will receive a bravery award for helping save assault victim Peter Lawrence from his burning West Coast home – memories of which will always stay with her, she says.

Rees, 34, who lives across the road from Lawrence's house in Dobson, heard his fire alarm on May 5 last year.

She saw the glow from Lawrence's house after it was set alight by Bobby Barnett-Waldron and she went to investigate.

"I've never seen so much blood," she said in a victim-impact statement.

"I felt sick straight away. I couldn't understand how someone could do this to an old man.

"Sometimes I cried because when I closed my eyes all I could see was the pool of blood.

"What Bobby did will be forever in my mind."

She and other neighbours went into the house and pulled Lawrence out before he was taken to hospital.

Rees will receive a Royal Humane Society bravery award on Tuesday.

Rees was treated for smoke inhalation after the rescue.