Ramandeep Singh left India to start a new life in New Zealand, assuring his worried parents it was a safe country. But on a December night in 2023, the 25-year-old security guard was beaten to death while closing a West Auckland reserve — a second job he had taken up to earn extra income.
“This was a prolonged and gratuitous attack on Mr Singh despite his attempts to call for help and escape,” said Justice Geoffrey Venning on Thursday as he sentenced Lorenzo Tangira, 26, to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 13 years and nine months.
“I do consider that the murder of Mr Singh was conducted with a high degree of brutality and callousness,”
the judge told the High Court in Auckland.
“The killing of Mr Singh was unprovoked. He was there doing his job,” he added
Singh had moved to Auckland five years earlier to pursue higher education. On the night of the attack, Tangira and a 17-year-old co-offender, who has been ruled unfit to stand trial, had been drinking before heading to Royal Reserve, where Singh was on duty.
According to court documents, Singh, who weighed just 46kg, was first confronted by the teen. Tangira then grabbed him by the back of his hi-vis vest, swung him around and punched him repeatedly in the face. Singh tried to escape to his vehicle, but the teen jumped on the bonnet, and Tangira continued the assault.
“When Mr Singh was eventually pulled from the vehicle, the assault by [the teen] and Mr Tangira continued,”
the court heard.
Singh was punched, kicked and stomped on, leaving him with multiple skull and facial fractures and severe brain injuries. His partially clothed body was later found dragged into bushes, his belongings stolen and car damaged.
His sister, speaking through a statement read by the prosecution, said:
“He was my closest friend, my anchor, my guide… And now he’s gone — stolen in the most brutal way.
If this can happen to him while simply doing his job in a park, how can any of us feel secure?”
Singh’s devastated family watched the sentencing remotely from India. His parents said:
“Not even an animal would be treated as he was… His loss has torn us apart in ways that cannot be repaired. There’s a silence in our home now — a heaviness, a void that will never be filled.”
The Crown argued Tangira showed no real remorse and had minimised his involvement. Tangira admitted to punching Singh but denied responsibility for the fatal blows. His defence lawyer, Vivienne Feyen, submitted a letter of apology and argued for a shorter non-parole period. But the judge rejected any significant reductions, citing Tangira’s violent criminal record and lack of genuine rehabilitation efforts.
“You must have known the violence against Mr Singh was extreme and unacceptable,” Justice Venning said.
“You had a number of opportunities to stop the assault… but you carried on.”
A close friend of Singh, in a victim impact statement, said:
“The pain of losing Ramandeep is constant and cuts deeply… I think about his final moments and it breaks me.”
Ramandeep Singh’s body was returned to his family in a coffin — “cold, lifeless and covered in injuries.” The young man remembered for his “unwavering kindness” now leaves behind a community shattered by the senseless violence of his death.
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