• Three men were sentenced to prison for a violent motel room invasion involving a mother and her toddler.
• Judge Simon Lance emphasised the bravery of the mother, who shielded her child during the attack.
• The defendants were described as “collateral victims” in a “home invasion for hire” targeting the woman’s ex-husband.

An early childhood educator who leapt on top of her toddler son as three masked strangers forced their way into her Epsom motel room in the middle of the night – trying her best to shield the child as the men delivered blow after blow with a Samoan cricket bat – says she still struggles to come to terms with the bewildering, nightmarish scenario.

The men remained silent throughout the attack, leaving suddenly and without a word after the bat split in two.

“The face of my 3-year-old son screaming ... will be forever etched in my mind,” she said in a victim impact statement that was read aloud in the Auckland District Court today as co-defendants Miracle Sau, 22, Johel Vui, 20, and Emmanuel Pritchard, 23, appeared together for sentencing.

By the end of the hours-long hearing, all three were sentenced to prison despite pleas from their lawyers for mercy due to their youth and their relatively clean records.

“What occurred that night must have been a terrifying experience,” Judge Simon Lance noted, emphasising that the incident could have easily resulted in death had luck not been on everyone’s side. “[The boy’s mother] was brave and resilient. She took the brunt of the attack.”

Co-defendants (left to right) Johel Vui, Miracle Sau and Emmanuel Pritchard were in the Auckland District Court for sentencing a year after violently attacking two adults and a child in a "home invasion for hire". Photo / Michael Craig

One of the defendants yelled an obscenity at the judge after learning they would be sent to prison, but only after he was out of eyesight from the bench – having already been led by security out of the courtroom through an open side door that leads to a holding cell.

To this day, the mother said, she still does not know why she was targeted. In an interview with the Herald immediately after the attack, the family wondered if it might have been a case of mistaken identity.

But prosecutor Ryan Benic described the incident today as a case of “home invasion for hire”, with two of the three defendants admitting they didn’t know the victims but had been offered a total of $1500 in exchange for intimidation. The third defendant said he wasn’t offered any money but went along to help, also not knowing the victims personally.

As for why they were enlisted in the first place, authorities were told only that the woman’s ex-husband – also in the motel room that night – was thought by the person who hired them to have disrespected his family. None of the defendants would identify the mystery person who bankrolled the “hit”.

Defence lawyers described the mother and child as unfortunate “collateral victims”.

Court documents state the trio arrived at Oak Tree Lodge on Great South Rd about 11.35pm on January 10 last year.

The woman had recently moved to the motel, which operates as transitional housing, after falling on hard times, a family spokesperson previously said. She had asked her ex-husband to stay with her and the child, sleeping in the room’s other bed, because she was frightened after frequent fights, drug use and screaming among neighbours, the family said.

As the trio approached, Vui was armed with the 1.5m bat, otherwise known as a kilikiti, and Sau held a machete. Prichard was unarmed. They knocked on the door, waking the mother and rousing the boy’s father from bed. Documents state the father opened the door but left the security chain attached, then quickly slammed the door shut and locked it upon seeing the trio and their weapons.

“The defendants began smashing the window in the door using the kilikiti and the machete,” according to the agreed summary of facts for the case. “Once the glass was smashed, the three defendants entered the room.”

“My baby, my baby!” the woman yelled as she pushed both her ex and her child on to the bed and jumped over them to protect them.

The blows were inflicted on the family for less than 30 seconds before the bat broke, but during that time the woman was struck multiple times. Her ex was hit on his hand and her child was hit on his leg, suffering swelling to his thigh and knee as well as a 3cm gash from the broken glass.

A 3-year-old and his parents were bashed with a cricket bat by men who burst into their transitional housing motel room in Auckland a year ago.

“The force of the blows was sufficient to break the bat in two, spraying splinters of wood across the room,” police noted in the agreed facts.

As the three ran from the lodge, the mother chased after them. A police dog handler patrolling the area also saw them run to their vehicle. They were followed to Otahuhu, where all three were arrested.

The woman said in her victim impact report that before the attack she had been a confident, outgoing social butterfly but now fears going out because she might run into the defendants. The 39-year-old was and remains a proud and protective mother who had struggled with infertility for about a decade before giving birth, she said.

“You instilled a fear in me so strong I thought we were going to die that night,” she said, adding that she hoped the defendants would receive a harsh punishment.

“Something must be wrong with you” to have targeted a child, she said, adding: “What you did is not okay.”

Judge Lance ordered a sentence of three years and 10 months for Sau, who organised the attack and who was described in a pre-sentence report as having shown “barely discernible” remorse. The other two were handed sentences of three years in prison.

Defence lawyer Lincoln Burns, representing Sau, said his client’s alleged indifference had been misinterpreted in the report. He works in security and has “an instinctive way of hiding his emotions”, he said.

“Unfortunately, [the mother] and the child are collateral victims of what happened here, but they weren’t targeted by Mr Sau,” Burns said.

The judge responded: “They didn’t have to hit [the mother]. They chose to hit her.”

Burns acknowledged that the situation quickly got out of hand.

“It was dark [in the room] and it was an unfocused, violent but brief attack,” he said, noting that his client confessed immediately after his arrest.

Vui, who wielded the bat during the attack, also regretted his involvement, said his lawyer, Matthew Goodwin.

“He says he didn’t intend to hit the child,” Goodwin said, describing the youngest victim as having been “somewhat caught in the crossfire” after Vui thought he saw the father reach for something in his pocket.

Vui said he agreed to participate because his grandmother had recently died and he was trying to raise money for her funeral. He had been offered $500. He was a hard worker and regular church-goer who received letters of support from the congregation and his bosses, his lawyer said.

Co-defendants (left to right) Johel Vui, Miracle Sau and Emmanuel Pritchard have been sent to prison for the attack. Photo / Michael Craig

Pritchard was described by his lawyer, Antonio Spika, as the last person to enter the motel room and the first one to leave. He was unarmed. But the judge pointed out he didn’t do anything to stop his co-offenders.

Each man faced a sentence of up to 14 years imprisonment for one count of aggravated burglary, up to five years for two counts each of assault with a weapon and up to two years for assault on a child.

“This attack has had an ongoing – not only physical but psychological – effect,” the judge said of the protective mother. “She was obviously terrified as were, no doubt, members of her family.

“... This was a vicious attack at night by three young – but big and imposing – men.”

Every member of that family, but especially the child, had a right to feel safe in their room, the judge added before handing down the sentences.

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.