Duck-stomping prison inmate Eruera Peratiaki makes $1000 donation to the SPCA
An inmate who chased a duck and stomped on its head when it landed in a prison yard has made a $1000 voluntary donation to the SPCA.
Eruera Peratiaki was charged with ill-treating an animal after injuring the duck so badly that it was euthanised last December.
He pleaded guilty to that charge in April.
Peratiaki - who was in jail for repeatedly punching, strangling and stomping on his ex-partner - appeared in Hastings District Court on Wednesday.
Judge Christopher Harding sentenced him to five months of imprisonment, to be served concurrently with his existing four-year sentence.
The court was told that Peratiaki had already made a donation of $1000 to the SPCA – in 10 instalments of $100.
A police summary of facts said that Peratiaki, 25, was eating an apple in a grassed area of Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison when he saw the duck.
He threw the apple at the duck, striking it in the body, then ran towards it and kicked it with force.
The duck tried to fly off but came down on the grass again.
Peratiaki followed it and stomped on its head, leaving it badly injured and immobile.
Another man nearby came over and put the duck “out of its misery”. The summary did not make clear if the other man was an inmate or a member of the prison staff.
The summary of facts included no explanation for the attack.
Peratiaki was sentenced to four years in prison last year for repeatedly assaulting, injuring and causing grievous bodily harm to his partner, including while they were trapped in shearers’ quarters together during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.
The violence began when they were living in Hawke’s Bay and continued after they moved to Auckland and later to Nelson.
It happened frequently, mostly when Peratiaki was drunk.
The Nelson District Court was told in April last year the victim often had a black eye and was strangled by Peratiaki about 20 times during their relationship, each time to the point where she was unable to breathe.
At other times, he rendered her unconscious by stomping on her head or throwing her head-first into concrete.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.