O’Brien pleads guilty to manslaughter, accused of a history of ‘trouble making’.
Bio O’Brien pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Auckland District Court last Tuesday.O’Brien was studying civil engineering at Unitec when his BMW collided with 78-year-old Jasmatbhai Patel’s van on Carrington Road, outside gate four on April 7. O’Brien then got out of his BMW, pulled Mr Patel from his van and beat him so badly he was taken to intensive care, but died the next day from head and brain injuries. The assault happened in front of children from Gladstone Primary School who were standing across the road, and a bus full of intermediate students on their way to school. One of these children wrote on the In Unison website “it was horrific. He would not stop punching Mr Patel. And then our bus arrived and we didn’t know whether or not Mr Patel was alive or dead. And then we all got interviewed by the police and had to imagine it all over again.” The prosecutions’ summery of facts said that O’Brien hit Mr Patel around the head and then pushed him with both hands in the chest, which sent him falling back onto the kerb, where he hit his head. This caused fracturing to the base of his skull and opened a head wound which, along with his left ear, began bleeding profusely. Now that O’Brien has admitted his guilt, Unitec has said he can not be a student at Unitec.“Bio O'Brien is no longer enrolled as a Unitec student due to his inability to attend classes. In general, students who are unable to attend classes will be withdrawn from their programme when the Institute is made aware of changes to their personal circumstances that prevent them from attending,” a spokesperson says.
A 21-year-old Auckland woman named Latoya told In Unison she knew O’Brien well through the Tuvaluan community. When she first saw O’Brien was accused of the assault, she says she was not surprised. “I knew that was coming, I had a feeling. He’s got a real temper on him.” Latoya has known O’Brien for about ten years. She says “he’s the type of guy that is really creepy.” He comes across as really cocky...He used to get drunk and start trouble wherever, and whenever. He’s not a nice guy.” She told In Unison that in the Tuvaluan youth community all the girls knew him as a “wannabe player”, and so avoided him. Latoya says due to an experience she had with O’Brien when she was younger, she believes he is “the type of guy to beat up women or forcefully do stuff to women.” She says he is a “cocky, forceful guy (but) only to people he knows are vulnerable and weak.”In Unison also spoke to O’Brien’s’ mother-in-law Sarai Tufala who says O’Brien is remorseful over what had happened, but feels her son-in-law has been portrayed wrongly.
“If he was so brutal why are there no records like that of him in the Islands or here?”
She says that O’Brien disputed the summary of facts that said he physically assaulted Mr Patel by punching him.
“In this particular case he hasn’t violently, brutally or physically assaulted Mr Patel.
I don’t want to say anything like he’s a good boy, it will minimise what he did.”
Mrs Tufala says there was no pathological evidence to back up the punching claim.
She says O’Brien claimed he did not punch or strike Mr Patel at all; rather he dragged him by the shirt, and later pushed him over.
“They were both denying responsibly over who caused the accident but Bio knew that his car was damaged and it was a BMW so he wanted Mr Patel to have a look at it, but he refused to.”
Mrs Tufala says that from the beginning of the case, O’Brien was always going to plead guilty.
When asked about his time in prison, Mrs Tufala says “it would be good for him to learn lessons”.
She wanted to say sorry to Mr Patel’s family, but was legally advised not to contact them, despite what her daughter was feeling. She says “we are just thinking about the other side of the family whatever she is feeling the other side is feeling worse.”
She says justice has been served for Mr Patel.
O’Brien is due back before the court in late September for sentencing.