Head-stamping security guard has sentence appeal dismissed
Thursday, 3 December 2020
A bouncer who was charged after stomping on a man's head so severely he was hospitalised for a month has lost his appeal for a shorter jail term.
Ray Pabirowski was sentenced to four years and nine months imprisonment in 2019, after being found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm while working as a security guard.
On November 14 two years earlier, Pabirowski was manning the doors of a 21st birthday party at a Northland hotel.
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According to court documents, a fight took place between Pabirowski and the victim after the bouncer asked him for ID – despite the man being in his 50s.
Later on, Pabirowski, after waiting for his victim to leave the bathroom, charged at him and bowled him over through a set of swing doors.
While the victim was on the floor, Pabirowski punched and stomped on his head.
District court Judge Deidre Orchard said it was obvious that the victim was “helpless” and “probably unconscious.” If he wasn’t unconscious, she said, he was “certainly in no position to defend himself.”
The victim was left with a broken eye socket, a broken nose, and 12 broken ribs.
He was in hospital for two weeks, before being transferred to Kaitāia Hospital in Northland for another fortnight, and was left unable to work for two months.
According to court documents, Judge Orchard regarded the level of violence as “very serious, rather than extreme.”
She considered how Pabirowski had planned the attack and how he was “only too ready” to involve himself in violence.
She adopted a starting point of five years prison and sentenced Pabirowski to four years and nine months. The bouncer received a three-month discount due to restrictive bail conditions.
Pabirowski’s lawyer, John Moroney, took the sentence to the Court of Appeal, stating the sentence was excessive.
In a recently published decision, Court of Appeal judge Justice Tim Brewer discussed how the victim was ambushed when he was “on the ground, vulnerable and helpless,” how the force and nature of the attack were “inherently dangerous” and how “the physical damage done was significant.”
Justice Brewer stated that when “a victim is subjected to a severe beating or kicking causing head injuries, the offender’s conduct will be treated similarly to offending involving the use of a weapon.”
He determined that the offending was “too serious” to warrant the lower sentence starting point Moroney had appealed for.
The appeal was dismissed.