The Court of Appeal has quashed a sentence of home detention given to a man who permanently disabled an elderly woman, and has sent him to jail for more than two years.
Darren Fidow, who was 18 at the time, robbed 82-year-old Patricia Sutcliffe at an Auckland mall in 2011, leaving her with a broken hip, broken wrist and bruising to her face.
The Solicitor-General had appealed against Fidow's sentence of 11 months' home detention, saying it was "manifestly inadequate".
Ms Sutcliffe says she is glad her attacker has been put in jail, because she is worried he will offend again.
Crown solicitor Simon Moore QC says the Solicitor-General does not take appeals on behalf of the Crown lightly, as there is a high threshold in sentencing appeals.
He told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report programme said the argument was that the discount given to Fidow's starting sentence was excessive.
"There are two offences for which Mr Fidow was sentenced. One was an aggravated robbery but the other one was a burglary, which was not completely unrelated to the facts, in the sense that that burglary took place in the afternoon after he'd received sentencing indication on the aggravated robbery."
