Police seal off a crime scene at Milford Beach on Auckland's North Shore in January 2008. A couple parked at the beach had been attacked in the early hours of the morning by several men who robbed them and hit them over the head with a metal bar. Both victims fled the scene with serious lacerations to their heads and received treatment in North Shore Hospital. Four young men aged 18–21 were later charged with the attack – and with an attack on another couple, later that night. They pleaded guilty two days into their trial in January 2008, and received prison sentences ranging from 9.5 years with no non-parole period to 14 years with a minimum non-parole period of eight years. The mother of one of the offenders was also jailed for four months for concealing the bloodstained metal weapons used in the attack.