By Ella Scott-Fleming of 
"Jacob Wi was sentenced in the Invercargill DC on seven charges relating to an incident where he held his victims hostage with an air gun" Photo: Otago Daily Times/ Ella Scott-Fleming
A teen who held his victims hostage at a remote Southland farmhouse with an airgun said acts of violence "gave him a rush better than drugs".
Jacob Wi, 18, was before the Invercargill District Court this week on seven charges stemming from an incident in which he carried out a prolonged beating of one hostage, threatened to kill two others and fired an airgun at police.
Wi and his 21-year-old girlfriend had been permitted to stay at another young couple's one-bedroom home in Ermedale for eight days, the court heard.
On the afternoon of 20 July, the defendant started consuming alcohol, cannabis and LSD.
When the three others finished work, the two couples went out to visit the grave of the 21-year-old's mother.
An argument began after the girlfriend told her then- partner not to drink at the site, and continued as the group arrived back at the cottage.
The other man went to bed as the defendant and his girlfriend continued arguing, with her telling him she wanted to break up.
Wi began assaulting the sleeping man, punching, kicking and kneeing him in the head in an attack which lasted about an hour, the police summary said.
The defendant later complained of having a sore foot from kicking the victim so hard, the court heard.
After the two women tried unsuccessfully to pull Wi off his now bruised, bleeding and concussed victim, they were told to take refuge in the other room.
Wi turned to them next and held a 30cm kitchen knife inches away from their chests and demanded they hand him an air rifle, or he would stab them.
Holding the weapon, he told his three victims they were not allowed to leave and fired off a couple of practice shots.
The police approached the house about 5am, when the defendant fired shots at them, telling them to "f ... off".
Two hours later he released his hostages and after another hour he discarded his air rifle, as well as several knives, and was arrested.
Judge David Ruth said Wi had referred to the hostages as his "little b .....s".
In a pre-sentence report before the court, the defendant said he accepted, and seemed unfazed by, a term of imprisonment.
"You thought prison was where you should be and you did what you needed to get there," the judge said.
Wi said committing crimes of this nature "gave you a rush better than drugs did".
Counsel Paige Noorland said after reading the report, any discount for remorse was "off the table".
The judge gave the teenager credit for his youth due to the "developmental status of young people".
On the three charges of kidnapping as well as assault with intent to injure, threatening to kill, discharging an airgun near a dwelling and making use of a firearm, Wi was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison.
*This story originally appeared in the Otago Daily Times.
Photo: Open Justice
