Defendant absent from court after violent, pantsless Epsom rampage

A 49-year-old Morningside man alleged to have been responsible for a bizarre pantsless rampage in Epsom yesterday – resulting in injuries to five people and the death of a dog – was unable to appear in Auckland District Court this afternoon.

Defence lawyer Jane-Frances O’Halloran told Judge Grant Fraser that she hadn’t yet been able to take instructions from her client, who remains at Auckland City Hospital.

In light of that, she asked for the hearing to be postponed until Monday and for her client to receive interim name suppression.

The judge said O’Halloran would need to provide more information if she was to ask for suppression to continue past Monday but he allowed the delay and interim suppression.

“In the absence of you being able to get instructions ... it’s overwhelming today,” he said of the name suppression decision. “In that situation, I have no choice.”

Court documents show the defendant now faces 17 charges, the most serious of which carries a 14-year maximum sentence.

Authorities were called to Manukau Rd during the morning rush hour yesterday for what was later characterised as “extremely violent and unnecessary” random attacks.

Police said the first of six confrontations occurred about 7.05am when he allegedly approached a jogger and began assaulting her without warning. When a good Samaritan motorist pulled over to help the woman, the defendant attacked that woman before hopping in the helper’s vehicle and driving off, police allege.

The defendant then allegedly hit two vehicles as he fled in the stolen car, before veering into three high-school-aged teens from Auckland Grammar who were on a training ride for the school’s cycling club.

One of the boys underwent surgery at Auckland City Hospital yesterday after he was rushed there in critical condition.

“This will be a life-altering event,” Auckland City District Commander Superintendent Sunny Patel said of the boy’s injuries yesterday.

A short time later, the defendant is alleged to have rammed another vehicle at a nearby petrol station as its owner was at the pump. She was unharmed. An employee at the petrol station said a man “not in his right mind” tried to take other vehicles at the site but was unable to without their keys, so he walked off.

The man then approached a dog walker and began to attack one of the two animals “by strangling and smashing it, causing it to die”, police allege in court documents. By that time, police arrived and the man is alleged to have assaulted an officer who was trying to stop the dog attack.

Police arrived at the scene eight minutes after they were called, authorities have said.

Police at the junction of Ranfurly and Manukau Rds in Epsom, where five people were injured and a man was arrested after a string of serious incidents.

The man was taken to Auckland City Hospital yesterday, where he remains under guard.

He was charged with attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to the jogger and one of the cyclists, punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment; injuring the two other boys with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, punishable by up to 10 years; taking the Toyota Rav4 belonging to the good Samaritan, punishable by up to seven years; five counts of assaulting people with a vehicle, one count of cruelty to an animal and two counts of failing to stop and render aid, all punishable by up to five years; assaulting police staff, punishable by up to three years; attempting to take a Toyota Highlander, punishable by up to two years; and two counts of driving a vehicle in a dangerous manner, punishable by up to three months’ imprisonment.

During today’s brief hearing, Judge Fraser postponed photo and video applications from multiple media outlets in attendance.

He ordered the defendant be remanded in custody, if he recovers enough before the Monday hearing to be released from hospital.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.