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Offender Databases Katherine Spooner

Katherine Mary Spooner

Alias

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Offences

Home invasion, robbery and attack on a Levin woman with a wheel brace in March 1997

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1965

Current Location

Unknown

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to 4 years 6 months in June 1997

Background
From the Evening Post 18th June 1997
A woman was beaten with a wheel brace and robbed of a $25 ring when another woman broke into her Levin home in March. Katherine Mary Spooner, 32, unemployed, Levin, was sentenced to four years' six months' imprisonment for aggravated robbery when she appeared before Judge Patrick Keane in Wellington District Court on Monday. Judge Keane said Spooner had gone to the woman's house early on March 12 asking to use her phone.

He said she returned about 11pm with an associate and accused the woman of keeping her wallet during her earlier visit. "When the woman denied it she was punched in the face and when she fell to the ground you pulled out a wheel brace you had kept hidden and hit her several times with it," he said. Judge Keane said the woman managed to deflect the blows to her head and it was only by accident that she did not receive any lasting injury. He said the woman was repeatedly asked for money during the attack.

She hid in a kitchen cupboard but came out when it became clear it was not going to be a refuge. Spooner continued the assault until the woman gave her a $25 ring. He said the offending might be an expression of grief as Spooner's partner had died during a shipping tragedy late last year. "It was a robbery where there was actual rather than implied violence and you have expressed relief that the effect on the victim was not more drastic," Judge Keane said.

Defence counsel Sandy Baigent said Spooner offered no excuse for the robbery and knew she had behaved deplorably. She said the grief over losing her partner meant her judgment was flawed at the time of the incident. Ms Baigent said Spooner had suffered physical, mental and sexual abuse during her upbringing and had no solid family base on which to make sound judgments.

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Corrections and Additional Information
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