A farmer accused of attacking a teen boy who had just broken into his home says he couldn't have fled as he expected gang members to turn up at the scene. 

William 'Bruce' Burr told a jury in the High Court at Hamilton that the teen burglar was busy on his phone after he tried to get control of the situation in his Piopio home during the early hours of October 1, 2020. 

Burr and his son, Shaun Burr, are fighting multiple charges after allegedly attacking a teen burglar, who together with his girlfriend, broke into his home to steal his car. 

Crown prosecutor Rebecca Mann put to Burr snr that both he and his son could have fled after getting the pair on the ground, but Burr snr said the boy had been on his phone likely calling his mates to the scene. 

"He's on the phone. He's not ordering a meat lovers pizza, he's ringing his friends ... it wasn't a situation to run. 

"Where do you go, where're his friends? 

"There's a young group of Mongrel Mob wannabes, thugs, and in my mind, he was ringing them and they could have been down in 2 minutes." 

Leaving the scene "didn't even cross my mind". 

"If I had handed over my keys, he would have slit my throat." 

Put to him by Mann that there wasn't a need for any more violence, Burr snr replied "yes there was he wasn't knocked out". 

Mann then responded that they wanted to keep punching him until he was knocked out and inflict serious harm, but he said the boy kept swinging and kicking and they needed to contain the situation. 

It was then Burr snr grabbed the piece of wood from behind the kitchen window and whacked him. 

"First I hit him on the body but it was like hitting a big pillow." 

He then struck him on the back of the right side of his head a couple of times, before hitting the other side of his head, with the hope he'd put both his hands up. 

He did and that was when Burr jnr saw the knife the boy was holding. 

Mann replied that he was trying to inflict pain on him, Burr said, "yeah, some pain ... the intent was to get his hands up on his head so hopefully he would have enough sense to keep them there". 

He said he didn't think he would have caused him serious harm by hitting him with the stick. 

"He reacted by putting his hand up ... so it worked perfectly." 

However, the boy put his hand down once Burr jnr said he'd noticed the knife. 

The pair then swapped weapons, Burr snr getting the shotgun back and Burr jnr then started "bashing him on the back". 

"I was getting kicked. Then I said to Shaun, 'hit his knees'," as the boy kept trying to stand up. 

Mann put to him that even though the boy was begging for them to stop, they continued their attack. 

"No, you're not in command of the facts. It didn't happen that way." 

- by Belinda Feek, Open Justice