The man who viciously stabbed a miniature horse 41 times has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.
Reginald Ozanne, who stabbed miniature horse Star 41 times, has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail for the attack. Photo: RNZ / Tim Brown
Ozanne is technically eligible for parole having already served one third of his sentence.
He has also been disqualified from owning any animals for up to 10 years.
Reginald Ozanne appeared in Dunedin District Court this afternoon to be sentenced for wilfully ill-treating Star, causing the 10-year-old miniature horse's death.
Ozanne, 50, pleaded guilty in March after initially denying the attack.
His denials even went as far as telling the media the police were looking at the wrong person after they searched his home in April last year.
The miniature horse, named Star, was tethered to a fence in the rural town of Waitati just north of Dunedin when Ozanne attacked him overnight on 17 February last year.
Star broke free during the attack and was later found by a man walking his dog. He died of his injuries.
Miniature horse Star was stabbed in Otago last year. Photo: Supplied
Ozanne was arrested in June last year after an extensive investigation by police. He has been in custody since.
Judge Michael Crosbie told Ozanne his offending had affected not only Star's owners, but the entire community and was even keenly felt further afield.
"The offence was cruel if not barbaric - seen in the number of wounds inflicted on this harmless family pet," the judge said.
Star's owner, Mandy Mayhem-Bullock, said the attack on Star deeply affected herself and her family.
"No one in my family or community could sleep very well. We were anxious and stressed."
It affected her ability to work as she grieved deeply for the horse the family had owned for most of his life.
Ozanne visited the scene of the crime after the attack, Mayhem-Bullock said.
"I saw him standing at the horse's paddock frequently - it made me feel sick."
The length of time to get an arrest added to her pain and anxiety, as she feared "some unseen danger".
"Everyone was so tense and scared and worried," she said.
Ozanne had come to her house to plead his innocence, she said.
"It was all so weird," she said.
The attack also affected the community of Waitati, fear causing some to move away.
"I've let down my children and the children of our community because we couldn't protect them from this violent, senseless crime," Mayhem-Bullock said.
"There was a trail of blood that couldn't be washed away. We had to look at it again and again. Everyone did."
"It breaks my heart ... that all of my community had to go through this ... and I don't know that we'll feel completely safe ever again."
Ozanne's lawyer, Deborah Henderson, said her client's initial not guilty plea was because on the night of Star's death he had consumed a bottle of home-brew whiskey and could not remember the offending.
Once he saw all the evidence he accepted his guilt and he remained horrified by his actions, Henderson said.
She read a letter of apology to the family on behalf of Ozanne.
Since being held in prison he had sought help from Narcotics Anonymous.
"He is here accepting responsibility ... and he is ready to change," Henderson said.
Outside court after the sentencing, Mayhem-Bullock said she was disappointed by the sentence.
"What would it take to get the maximum sentence?" she said.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail.
"This is so brutal and horrific and nothing compares to this - there's nothing else [for the court] to go by. I don't know if I just don't understand the legal system but for us we really wanted him to get the maximum."
Two dozen or so supporters were also outside court to be there for the family and Star.
Supporters outside court called for a maximum sentence for the man who stabbed Star, a miniature horse, 41 times and left it to die. Photo: RNZ / Tim Brown
Mayhem-Bullock said she had her suspicions about Ozanne right from the outset, and was in shock when he came to visit them to plead his innocence.
"I was looking at him and his fingernails and thinking 'is that blood?'," she said. "I just was fixated with his hands going 'oh my god, oh my god'."
She questioned if Ozanne's apology was even worth the paper it was written on, and was concerned about his potential parole.
"He's said he wont come back to our community [but I question that]," she said.
"When we first met him I wonder if he had just got out of jail because he pitched that he was a citizen who had turned over a new leaf ... it was only a matter of time - he had lived in the community for less than a year [at the time of Star's killing]."
Mayhem-Bullock said Ozanne's pleas of innocence to the media were particularly galling.
"You couldn't even write it as a work of fiction could you? It was so unbelievable."
