The dairy downturn has been partly blamed for the pressure that led to a North Otago stockman who has admitted breaking the tails of 48 dairy cows.

The 37-year-old farm employee and father of four young children, Jeffrey Antony Wright, was today put on community detention for four months and ordered to do 100 hours of community work, at his sentencing in the Christchurch District Court.

The Ministry of Primary Industries conceded that he was “not seen as a bad farmer or a cruel man” but it prosecuted him as part of its efforts to stamp out the dairy farming practice of tail-breaking.

MPI prosecutor Grant Fletcher said after the sentencing: “Tail-breaking is a practice that has no place within New Zealand’s dairy farming industry. It is cruel and completely unnecessary. If tail-breaking is brought to our attention, we will always investigate and if appropriate place the matter before the court.”

Wright will serve his community detention at a house at Papakaio, north of Oamaru, about 25km from the farm where he works, and where the offending occurred in 2014 and 2015.

Several months ago, Wright admitted a charge of recklessly ill-treating 40 dairy cows, and wilfully illtreating 8 cows. His sentencing had been delayed to check an address for an electronically monitored sentence.

Judge Tom Gilbert said tail-breaking occurred out of anger or to make an animal move. It was considered by animal health experts to be cruel and unnecessary. Significant force was required and the pain inflicted was equivalent to having fingers broken. It interfered with a cow’s mating, toiletting and swatting of flies.

Wright was on a farm with 1065 cows, which was generally seen to be a well managed property. The MPI investigated when a member of the public reported concerns. Veterinarians found cows with broken tails, including eight that had been broken in the previous two weeks.

Wright co-operated with the investigation, and admitted the offending. He said he had broken the tails because of his inability to control his frustration.

Judge Gilbert said Wright was polite and respectful at his pre-sentence interview and was seen as a low likelihood of reoffending.

“You were clearly a man under considerable stress because of the downturn in the dairy industry, as well as the work burdens that come with being a dairy farmer, and the pressures from being a father of four young kids,” said the judge.

He imposed the sentence and ordered Wright to pay $2817 reparations to the MPI.

He said he was satisfied that the chances of Wright reoffending were remote, but warned that if it did happen he would likely be imprisoned and disqualified from having control of animals.

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A foreign woman spent almost a year travelling New Zealand with a man who is now accused of repeatedly assaulting, tying up, and raping her.

The two had an itinerant lifestyle, often living as freedom campers when they were not working on farms and orchards.

After the two met at Muriwai Beach near Auckland, the man said, “I want to show you New Zealand.”

The woman, who had only been in New Zealand briefly when they met, told the Christchurch District Court today that she found him “charming”, and agreed to travel with him.

But now the Crown is alleging that the man raped her five times, tied her up, sexually violated her with a knife, saw handle, and vibrator, and assaulted her nine times. The 45-year-old denies 19 charges in the trial before Judge Gary MacAskill and a jury which is expected to take at least two weeks.

The woman was the first of 21 witnesses called by the Crown, and gave evidence to the trial from behind a screen.

The man does not have name suppression, but his identification would identify the victim who has automatic suppression as the complainant in a sex case. They had travelled together to many parts of New Zealand over 11 months.

Crown prosecutor Barnaby Hawes said the issue of consent would be the central issue at the trial. He told of the woman’s allegations that she had been tied up, threatened with a knife, sexually violated and raped, strangled and suffocated.

However, she had returned to the relationship with the man after he apologised and continued her travels with him. She had once made a complaint to the police in Queenstown but withdrew the allegations when she made a fuller statement.

Mr Hawes told the jury that they might think it odd that she stayed, but he said: “She was having real mental and psychological conflicts in terms of this relationship.”

The woman told the court that after an initial aggressive incident with the man, they had split but resumed the relationship when he apologised after a week because “I was loving him”. He then tied her up, threatened her again, and forced her to have sex.

Eleven months after beginning the relationship, after another incident in Canterbury, she left him at Barrington Mall and called the police for help.

Defence counsel Ethan Huda told the jury that the trial would unfold gradually and they should not come to any conclusions until they had heard all the evidence, and reminded them that the Crown had to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.

The trial is continuing.

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A West Coast drug offender who wanted locked up to go “cold turkey” has been wished luck by a judge who has released him into a rehabilitation programme.

Twenty-two-year-old Andy Junior Halliday had got part of his wish after appearing in Westport and being remanded to Christchurch.

His case was due for call in the Christchurch District Court on Friday, but was stood down, and when it was due to be recalled Halliday had become frustrated.

The appearance did not go ahead and the case was held over to yesterday, so Halliday ended up getting about 10 days in custody in total.

Halliday had asked to be imprisoned for his and the community’s safety because he had an “extreme” methamphetamine problem, and no home.

His lawyer Doug Taffs told the judge in Westport that the only way Halliday would stay clean was if he was locked up and went “cold turkey”.

Halliday was before the court for sentencing for breaching prison release terms, failing to complete his community work hours, and a new charge of failing to report on supervision.

He pleaded guilty in Christchurch yesterday and defence counsel Glenn Henderson told Judge Tom Gilbert that a place was available for Halliday in a drugs rehabilitation programme in Gore, but he would not be assessed to enter the course for five days.

Judge Gilbert said that after 10 days in custody, no other punitive sentence was warranted for Halliday.

He asked, “Would you be open to a residential treatment programme?” Halliday replied that he was.

He noted that Halliday’s motivation to attend the drug course was in everybody’s interests.

He cancelled the existing supervision and community work sentences, and sentenced Halliday to a year of intensive supervision when he must attend courses, counselling, treatment, or programmes as directed.

Halliday was then released under supervision ahead of his planned admission to the programme, the Judge Gilbert wished him, “Good luck.”

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A man facing 10 charges, including an alleged ram-raiding of Anderson and Hill sportswear at Barrington Shopping Centre, was denied bail in the Christchurch District Court.

It is alleged Joseph Senior, 27, was one of the men who was involved in the incident where one car drove into the shop, and another reversed in about 3am on October 14.

The burglars grabbed as many clothing items and footwear as they could, and drove away in the damaged car within minutes of the ram-raid.

Police have charged Senior, a digger operator from Linwood, with burgling the building on October 14, unlawfully taking a car on September 17, receiving a stolen skill saw, nail gun, and battery charger on October 26, stealing a radar detector, and sunglasses on October 26, and stealing a radar detector, I-pad, and skill saw on October 27.

They also allege he attempted to use a construction company’s order book four times between October 8 and12.

Judge Brian Callaghan accepted the police opposition to bail, and remanded Senior in custody to an appearance by video-link from the Christchurch Men’s Prison on November 24.

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A man has been jailed for three years for a dangerous high-speed chase across North Canterbury in heavy traffic last September while he was trying to hide from police.

Kyle James Clarke, 23, was sentenced on charges of unlawfully taking a car, recklessly driving it on the Northern Motorway, failing to stop for police, driving while forbidden, entering an enclosed yard, intentionally damaging a fence, being found unlawfully in a building, and breaching court conditions.

Defence counsel Colin Eason said the bulk of Clarke’s offending occurred while he was trying to hide from police. Clarke had been in a rehabilitation programme but his life fell apart, he said.

Clarke was a considerate and trustworthy young man who could hold down employment, but he was affected by his addiction to drugs. He needed an effective long-term residential rehabilitation programme, Mr Eason said.

Clarke, who is from Geraldine, entered a property on Ashbys Road in Amberley, and drove off on a four-wheel motorcycle which he abandoned on Harleston Road, Sefton.

He was found by the owner on a property in Sefton, and she took him to the Waikuku petrol station where the owner of the bike saw Clarke and tussled with him.

Clarke ran off and found an unlocked car with keys in the ignition and drove it on State Highway One where police saw him, and chased him.

He was driving on the wrong side of the road in heavy traffic, so police abandoned the chase.

Clarke continued to drive recklessly through Belfast, travelling at high speed to New Brighton where he drove across Rawhiti Domain, and ended up along Dyers Road where he swerved around other vehicles and scattered road cones at the extensive road works.

He drove through a fence at Forest Hill Place, through a small reserve, and abandoned the car on Cob Crescent, Woolston. A police dog tracked him to a nearby garage.

Judge David Saunders said Clarke had breached his Timaru Court release conditions when this occurred.

He said Clarke’s driving had the potential to cause significant harm and damage to innocent road users, and Clarke did not care about the safety of others on the road.

He said Clarke had absolutely no right to take the car and caused significant damage to it when he crashed into the fence.

He sentenced him to three years in prison, and disqualified him from driving for two years. The disqualification will affect him if he gets early release from prison, and will stop him from doing any driving work on the prison farm.

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A Christchurch man who allegedly pretended to be a social worker to befriend five troubled teens has gone on trial for sexual grooming and indecency with a 13-year-old boy who was part of the group.

The Crown alleges the 37-year-old man gave the youths a false name and pretended to be a social worker in his 20s, before giving them money to buy cannabis and convincing them to sleep over at his house.

Indecent touching of the boy is alleged to have taken place while two of the youths slept in the man’s bed.

Crown prosecutor Karyn South told a Christchurch District Court jury that the man was an ACC beneficiary and no-one employed him as a social worker. He had no legitimate connection at all with social work.

“ He lied about his name, age, and occupation,” she said. “The Crown says they are important facts because they demonstrate that the defendant had illegitimate purposes in meeting these young people and ingratiating himself with them.”

She said the man’s actions were not those of “a kind-hearted social worker who was trying to help the boy and his friends”.

“The Crown says this is sinister behaviour,” she said.

As the three-day trial began before Judge Paul Kellar and a jury, the man pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual grooming of a young person, aiding in the supply of cannabis to two young people, and indecently assaulting a 13-year-old by rubbing his leg. The man’s name is suppressed.

Miss South said the man had befriended a group of troubled youths he met at a suburban Christchurch fast-food outlet. The five teenagers regularly hung out there, and the man started approaching them and offering to buy them food and take them for a ride in his van.

He also took them shopping at a mall nearby and bought them clothing, a cellphone charger, and sweets.

He offered them the chance to spend the night at his house in Aranui. This was an appealing proposition because some of the group were getting in trouble from time to time and some were not going to their homes to sleep.

The group decided there was “safety in numbers” and decided they would go.

The man then offered them money to buy cannabis and drove them to an address where he gave them $100 to buy the drug.

They then went to his address and smoked a substantial amount of cannabis and became intoxicated.

The man had a two bedroom house, with sofas available in the lounge, but insisted that the whole group sleep in his bedroom, with two boys in his bed where he was sleeping and the others on the floor.

During the night, a 13-year-old boy woke to find that his trousers and underwear had been lowered and he could feel the defendant rubbing him. He did not want that contact and got up and joined the others on the floor.

After the incident, the man repeatedly contacted the boy’s mother by phone calls and texts, to tell her that the boy was “up to no good” and was dealing in cannabis. He told the mother that her son had been telling lies and making untrue allegations against the defendant.

Miss South alleged the man had been trying to control any damage the boy might do if he talked to anyone about what had happened.

Defence counsel Andrew McCormick told the jury that the Crown’s opening allegations were not evidence and it was critical they kept an open mind and remained dispassionate while the evidence was heard.

The Crown evidence began with the playing of a DVD of an evidential interview with the boy in which he made his allegations.

The trial is continuing.

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A 15-year-old runaway has told of a man who said he was a social worker “being real weird” when he took a group of teenagers to his Aranui house.

The teenager – who has automatic name suppression as a witness because of his age – was giving evidence on the second day of the Christchurch District Court trial of a 37-year-old ACC beneficiary.

The man denies charges of meeting a young person after sexual grooming, aiding two teenagers to obtain cannabis, and indecently assaulting a 13-year-old boy. The Crown alleges the indecency occurred when the man took five teens to his house and had two boys sleeping with him in his bed.

The Crown alleges that the man was faking his social work status, and ingratiating himself to a group of teenagers at a suburban Christchurch fast food outlet by buying them food, taking them shopping, and taking them for drives in his car.

The boy alleged to be the subject of the indecency gave evidence after the trial began, and a second teenager gave evidence today about being part of the group.

He said the man told the young people that when they arrived at his house in his car, they had to keep their heads down out of sight until he had driven the vehicle into the garage.

“He was being real weird,” said the witness. “We weren’t allowed near the windows and the blinds were always shut. He said if the police came he would get arrested.”

He said the man had given him $100 to get cannabis from his “preferred dealer” in Linwood. He denied, when he was questioned by defence counsel Andrew McCormick, that he had actually used his own money for the drug.

“I had no money. I was on the run,” the youth said.

He denied the defence’s allegation that he had never been to the man’s house and that someone else had said the man was a social worker. He said the man had told him himself.

Detective Craig McNamara said he had made the initial contact with the boy who was now the subject of the indecency charge, and his mother. The boy had denied in that interview that the man who said he was a social worker had touched his penis, and said he had never slept in the man’s bed.

The Crown completed presentation of its case just as the trial adjourned for lunch.

In the afternoon, the defence announced that it would call no evidence and the trial adjourned to Wednesday morning to hear closing addresses by the Crown and defence, and then the summing up by Judge Paul Kellar before the jury retires to consider its verdicts.

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A teenager who admitted five assaults – including flicking Hepatitis-infected blood in a woman’s face – has been given a community-based sentence but warned that he must control his temper.

The warning was issued by Christchurch District Court Judge John Strettell as he sentenced Brandon Lee Coulson, 18, who admitted the assaults, two charges of intentional damage, and stealing a bicycle.

He has had Hepatitis C since a young age.

During a dispute, Coulson injured his hand when he punched the wall and he then flicked his own blood into the face of a woman. She was terrified and had to be tested to see if she had contracted the disease.

The other assaults included pushing a dairy owner over, into a glass cabinet, lunging at someone with a knife, and kicking a woman.

Defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger said Coulson had a chaotic upbringing and lifestyle, as well as drug addiction issues.

Judge Strettell said a punitive sentence was needed to show him that could not simply hit people when he became angry or did not like what was happening.

He put the teenager on supervision for a year, with special conditions, and imposed 180 hours of community work which can be converted to training if his probation officer decides.

Unpaid driving fines totalling $1750 were wiped, and reparation payments of $200 were ordered for the damage he did.

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A man accused of posing as a social worker to meet young people claims the teenagers gave fabricated evidence against him at his Christchurch District Court jury trial.

The 37-year-old man’s defence counsel, Andrew McCormick, described the man’s case in his closing address to the jury on the third day of the trial, after the defence elected not to present any evidence.

The man has denied charges of meeting a 13-year-old boy after sexual grooming, paying for cannabis that was supplied to that boy and another 15-year-old, and indecently assaulting the 13-year-old.

The boy gave evidence of the man meeting the group of five teenagers at a suburban Christchurch fast food outlet where he told them he was a social worker. They said he bought them food, took them shopping, and then gave them money to buy cannabis ahead of a visit to stay overnight at his Aranui home.

The Crown alleged the man got five teenagers to sleep in his bedroom, even though there were other sleeping places available. Two boys slept with the man in his bed, and the Crown says one of them woke during the night to find he was being indecently assaulted.

But Mr McCormick said the man’s case was that although he made himself known to the teenagers, they did not go to his house and they never stayed overnight. He had never indecently assaulted the boy who claimed this had happened, and there was no sexual grooming, nor any money provided to buy cannabis.

He said there were “too many holes” and inconsistencies in the Crown case. The Crown was asking the jury to rely on the word of the two boys who gave evidence about purchases that had been made, when there was no corroboration. The checks had not been done by the police. There was no evidence to support claims made about purchases for the teenagers.

The defence said the jury could not be sure from the Crown witnesses about what had happened.

Crown prosecutor Karyn South said the boy who accused the man of indecency had denied the indecency when first asked by a police officer if anything had happened. She said the boy had denied it at that stage because his mother was present and he was embarrassed but he had told a specialist interviewer about it three days later. The recorded interview was played to the trial.

She asked why the youth would be at the trial if he was making false allegations. The youth had said: “I would not be here if he hadn’t done something to me.”

The man’s actions were not those of a man who was acting legitimately, Miss South told the jury in her closing address.

After the addresses, Judge Paul Kellar summed up the case before the jury retired to consider its verdicts on the four charges.

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Sex charges have been dropped against a former Christchurch couch-surfing host who was accused of preying on tourists, but he faces a likely jail term after being found guilty today on other sex charges.

The Crown got permission to withdraw the couch-surfing charges against the 37-year-old man because the alleged victims, who were tourists, had returned overseas and were getting on with their lives.

Crown prosecutor Karyn South said the main victim, aged 19, was overseas and was no longer “engaging” with the prosecution and that trial could not go ahead.

Trial Judge Paul Kellar granted permission for the withdrawal. Because the charges were not “dismissed” the Crown would be able to lay them again if it had the chance to renew the prosecution.

The man was originally charged with drugging and sexually violating a male couch surfer in May 2014, indecently assaulting another person in September 2014, stealing a Cash Advance card worth $20 from a third person, stealing a driver’s licence from a man in October, and making an intimate visual recording. He had denied all the charges.

The man was originally held in custody, but was then granted bail, and the Crown has then charged him with offences relating to his contacts with a group of teenage runaways in 2015.

That led to this week’s trial in the Christchurch District Court when he denied charges of sexual grooming of a 13-year-old boy, providing the money for that boy and a 15-year-old to buy cannabis, and indecently assaulting the 13-year-old boy while he and another boy slept in the man’s bed at his house in Aranui.

The other runaways were sleeping on the bedroom floor when the boy awoke to find that his pants and underwear had been pulled down and the man was touching him.

The jury retired to consider its verdicts this afternoon, on the third day of the trial and rapidly returned with guilty verdicts on all four charges.

The man, said “What?” as the indecency guilty verdict was read, but Judge Kellar later told him that the case against him had been “overwhelming”.

The judge said he had not been surprised that the jury returned its verdicts as quickly as it did.

Judge Kellar refused bail, indicating that a term of imprisonment was likely. He remanded the man in custody for sentencing on January 18 and ordered a pre-sentence report and a psychological report.

He thanked Miss South and defence counsel Andrew McCormick on the work they had done to bring the trial to its conclusion.

The Crown alleged that the man had been posing as a social worker to ingratiate himself with the group of teenagers who hung out at a suburban Christchurch fast food outlet. He had bought the group food, taken them shopping, taken them for rides in his car, and then gave them money to buy cannabis before getting them to stay the night at his house in Aranui.

There he had insisted one night that the whole group sleep in his bedroom, either in his bed or on the floor, though other sleeping places were available. The trial heard evidence that he had behaved “weirdly”, by making them stay out of sight as they arrived at the address in his car, and then staying away from the house’s windows with the curtains always drawn.

The Crown said they were not the actions of a man who was acting legitimately.

The defence said the teenagers had made up their stories and the incidents had never happened. It alleged they had never gone to his house, and no indecency had taken place.

The man was refused continued name suppression by a District Court judge at an earlier hearing but is appealing the decision to the High Court. At present that appeal is due to be heard next week. Judge Kellar confirmed that suppression would continue in the meantime.

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A teenager has admitted the armed robbery of the Kirk Road dairy in Templeton on September 5.

Police said Bradley Gavin Moore, an 18-year-old concrete worker, and two associates walked past the dairy with the hoods of their jerseys up. As soon as a customer left the dairy they all went in wearing bandanas and balaclavas.

One offender allegedly pointed a pistol at the shop owner, and began punching him about the head. He dragged him to the cash register and demanded it be opened.

Moore opened the cigarettes cabinet and placed cigarettes and tobacco, and then notes out of the cash register, into a pillow case.

The victim was kneeling on the ground with the alleged pistol pressed up against his forehead, and was repeatedly punched in the head. He suffered bruising to his right ear and upper right arm.

In the Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish read Moore the first of the three strike warnings for violent offenders, and remanded him in custody to January 20.

Two other youths are being dealt with separately at the courts.

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A man accused of 19 sex and violence charges against his travelling companion has given evidence that the couple had “a normal, consensual” sexual relationship.

The trial of the 45-year-old man has been going for seven days, and after the Crown finished presentation of its case involving evidence from 21 witnesses, the defence has begun its case.

Crown is alleging that the man raped a woman five times, tied her up, sexually violated her with a knife and saw handle, and assaulted her nine times.

The woman – a visitor to New Zealand – spent days giving evidence about repeated incidents with the man as they travelled around the country, sometimes freedom camping in a van or doing casual work. They were together about 11 months in 2014-15.

Defence counsel Serina Bailey said the man would be called to give evidence and would tell Christchurch District Court Judge Gary MacAskill and the jury that he had never raped or sexually abused the woman, never strangled her, although he would admit that they sometimes had “heated and nasty” arguments.

The man told the court he was a Jehovah’s Witness and brought his own Bible to take his oath as a witness.

He told of the couple meeting at an Auckland beach when he was fishing with friends. He denied that during the relationship he had violated her with a knife or saw handle, or threatened to kill her.

The couple had “normal, consensual sex” three or four times a week during the relationship, he said.

He denied raping her. “Never, not once,” he said in evidence. “It was always consensual sex that we had.”

The man’s name is not suppressed, but he cannot be identified without revealing the identity of the alleged victim who has automatic suppression.

The trial is expected to end next week.

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A burglar caught sleeping in a caravan on a Rolleston property has pleaded guilty and now faces sentencing next month on a total of 10 charges.

Raniera Smyth, 20, told police that he had been sleeping in the caravan in a yard at Rolleston Drive for two or three nights when he was found.

Police found him inside the caravan at 10.25pm on October 30.

The owners had noticed a window of the caravan had been smashed, and it appeared someone had been sleeping inside. They placed cardboard over the broken window and the next night they called the police when they saw the cardboard had been removed.

Smyth was inside.

He admitted being found unlawfully on the property, in a video-link from Christchurch Men’s Prison, at a Christchurch District Court session before Judge Alistair Garland.

He also admitted the burglary of a house on Othello Drive, Rolleston, just after midnight the night before he was caught.

He went into the house through an unlocked garage access door, and picked up an iPad mini. The woman resident woke to find him standing beside her bed, and he then made his getaway with the computer.

He told police he had gone to the house to look for something to sell.

Smyth was already due for sentence on five charges of burglary, two thefts, and being unlawfully in a yard – charges that had been transferred from the Gisborne District Court.

He will now be sentenced on all charges on December 20, in Christchurch. The case was referred for a restorative justice meeting with the victims, and for a pre-sentence report. Smyth remains in custody.

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Three men have admitted taking part in an armed gang attack at the Riccarton bus lounge on March 17.

Police say five were involved in the attack, and four have now admitted their roles. One did not deny his role at a Youth Court appearance in June and is being dealt with in that court. The last one has denied the charge and is still to be dealt with in the Youth Court.

Three older offenders charged in the District Court appeared at a Crown case review hearing before Judge Jane Farish today and pleaded guilty to reduced charges of assault with intent to injure. They had previously been charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The judge remanded all three for sentencing on January 18.

Reggie Kenneth Roberts, 21, was remanded in custody and no assessment was sought of his suitability for a home detention sentence. Jahphire Tekouaterangi Travis, 19, and Nikora Lake Siaosi, 20, were both remanded on continued bail and home detention assessments were ordered as part of their pre-sentence reports.

The police say one of the group – who has pleaded not guilty – was armed with a tomahawk when the group ran along Division Street, Riccarton, towards the Metro Lounge about 6.50pm on March 17. Some of the group had their faces covered with red bandanas.

They went into the lounge where the victim was standing and started to assault him.

Roberts punched him first, and then Siaosi punched and kicked him in the head several times. Travis punched and kicked him in the head and the victim was then struck twice on the head with the back of the tomahawk by the fifth offender, police allege.

After the attack, the five ran back down Division Street and left in vehicles.

The victim had a cut to the head needing seven striches, grazing to his forehead and the bridge of his nose, a black eye, and three cracked ribs.

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A young Belfast couple will serve home detention together after being found guilty of torching a car in a revenge attack.

They both continue to deny involvement and pointed the finger at a witness who gave evidence against them at their Christchurch District Court jury trial in August.

Judge Alistair Garland told them today that he could not reduce their sentences because there was no sign of acceptance of responsibility, contrition, nor remorse.

He imposed nine months of home detention on 21-year-old Shawn David Thompson-Sampson, and seven-and-a-half months on Carly Ann Byford, 19. Thompson-Sampson has health issues and a limited history or prior offending, and Byford has no previous convictions.

Judge Garland said the car had been set alight in a Belfast Street as retribution for an unpaid debt for tyres, which the owner owed to Thompson-Sampson.

The witness at the trial said the pair had discussed taking the amplifier and sub-woofer speakers from the car in payment of the debt, and then one of them suggested setting fire to the car to get rid of any incriminating evidence.

The 1984 Ford Laser was badly damaged and a total loss in the fire that followed outside the victim’s home.

The sound system had been taken away in the witness’ car, and when he saw the car was on fire, the owner arrived at Thompson-Sampson and Bywater’s home a few doors away in the same street, just in time to see the bedroom light being turned out.

Defence counsel Richard Peters and Colin Eason urged Judge Garland to impose a home detention sentence rather than imprisonment at the Belfast address, even though their probation reports found the address was unsuitable.

Judge Garland noted the concern about there being three domestic violence police call-outs to the address from 2013 to 2015, but he noted that Thompson-Sampson had done an anger management course and other rehabilitation since then. There had been no arrests over those incidents.

He noted that Thompson-Sampson was on a benefit, but Byford was in part-time employment.

As part of the sentence, he ordered Thompson-Sampson to attend and complete any rehabilitation programme as directed, and ordered both of them to pay half of the $1400 reparations to the car owner by weekly instalments.

He said there was a wide range of sentences for arson. “It almost always involves danger to others even if only to those who have to put out the fire.”

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Two men caught with multi plugs and cords stolen from the music room at Addington Primary School pleaded guilty to charges of burglary in the Christchurch District Court.

Nathan Ihaka Te Hana, 42, and Gareth Eyre, 25, were caught by a police dog handler a short distance from the school after the alarm was triggered on July 19.

In the early hours of July 18 the window in the door of the music room was smashed with a brick. Guitars, guitar accessories, and four amplifiers were removed and the amplifiers were stored in the bushes near the school.

The next morning, also in the early hours, Te Hana went into the school and took plugs and cords, while Eyre waited outside.

Defence counsel Glenn Dixon, said Eyre wanted a remand before sentencing so he could attend a restorative justice meeting. He was remanded in custody on the burglary charge, to November 18, so that inquiries could be made to find out if the school was interested in attending a meeting.

Te Hana’s charge of burglary was amended to a charge that he was a party to the burglary.

His defence counsel, Teresa Penman, said the items stolen by these men were recovered, and there was no evidence Te Hana was involved in breaking the window or entering the school.

Judge Peter Rollo said Te Hana had a lesser role than Eyre, and sentenced him to 15 months in prison, and said he was not to apply for a substituted sentence of home detention.

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A driver who killed a two-year-old boy when his van jerked backwards unexpectedly as he started it has been “embraced” by the child’s grieving family, the Christchurch District Court was told.

The boy’s mother, Minetta Oxley, remains friends with the driver, Johnny Tupa’i Tihema, 31, who today pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving causing death.

Tihema is now expected to meet the family at a restorative justice conference ahead of the sentencing, which Judge Peter Rollo set for January 16. Tihema was remanded at large, without bail being required.

Defence counsel Glenn Dixon said it was “a terribly sad case” and the judge agreed.

Mr Dixon said: “Remarkably Miss Oxley continues to be very close friends with Mr Tihema and her family has really embraced him right through the grieving process and made him part of that grieving family.

“I think a restorative justice conference is required, notwithstanding that there has been remarkable forgiveness already shown by Miss Oxley.”

The accident in Pages Road, Aranui, late on the afternoon of June 17, caused the death of Isaiah James Oxley-Pirini, who was described by his family as a treasured and cherished boy.

Mr Dixon said after the court appearance that Tihema and Miss Oxley had met at a local Christian café, and went to the same church. They met on the afternoon of the accident outside Cowles Stadium, for training.

Tihema is a personal trainer. When it became cooler, they decided to go to a mall to talk about the training programme, and that was when the accident happened.

When Tihema arrived, he had backed his van into a parking place but left it in reverse and only partially applied the handbrake, police said.

As they were leaving, Tihema stood beside the driver’s door and reached in to start the engine to warm it up.

As he did so, Isaiah, who had said he wanted to travel with him in the van, was running around the back of the vehicle. When the engine started, the van moved backwards, crushing Isaiah between the van and a wooden post.

He could not be freed until Tihema got into the van and moved it forward. Isaiah died at the scene.

Interviewed by the police, Tihema said he had not realised that the van was in reverse. Normally he would have left it in neutral.

He said that the handbrake was on, and when he hard the screams he pulled it up harder and turned the key off.

When sentencing takes place in January, the court will receive a report on the restorative justice meeting if it is held, and victim impact statements from the child’s parents.

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An Oamaru man was described as the “ringleader” of a group who repeatedly burgled a holiday home at Fairlie and took property totalling $55,000 including two jetskis on a tandem trailer.

Judge John Strettell jailed 27-year-old Jade Luke Lamatoa for two years six months at his sentencing which took place by video-link in the Christchurch District Court.

Lamatoa and the judge and police prosecutor were present in court, while the submissions by his defence counsel, Sarah Saunderson-Warner, were presented over the video-link.

Judge Strettell had found Lamatoa guilty at a trial in the Timaru District Court in September, when he said the evidence against him was “overwhelming”.

The police case included evidence from Lamatoa’s former girlfriend, Jennifer Mouatt, who had also taken part.

The judge said he gained the impression that Lamatoa was the ringleader of the enterprise and that Mouatt was under his influence.

Others involved have already been sentenced.

Lamatoa had effectively carried out four burglaries of the holiday home, which had been brought together as one prosecution.

Evidence was heard that he travelled to Fairlie from Oamaru four times – first to look around the holiday home, then to take jet skis, before a third visit to take the jet ski keys, and a fourth to take a buggy and another trailer.

Some items stolen in the burglaries were found when police searched Lamatoa’s Oamaru address.

Some of the stolen property has been returned to the owner, but those convicted have been ordered to pay a $2150 share of the outstanding reparations. A similar order was made against Lamatoa.

Judge Strettell noted that Lamatoa’s criminal record included six previous convictions for burglary, and five for other dishonesty offences.

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A Christchurch tourism operator who challenged Christchurch Canterbury Tourism’s decision to cancel his membership has lost his civil claim and has been ordered to pay costs.

Christchurch District Court Judge Paul Kellar has issued his reserved decision, five weeks after a half-day hearing at which the civil claim by Robin Max McCarthy, trading as the Christchurch Tours Group, was argued.

Mr McCarthy claimed $200,000 “compensation” from Christchurch Canterbury Tourism Ltd, trading as Christchurch Canterbury Marketing, for “abruptly” terminating his membership resulting in “loss of promotion for his business, loss of income, loss of reputation, lost opportunity costs, and considerable personal and employee stress”.

CCM operates a private organisation which advertises and promotes tourism. It works with tourist operators to promote their services by providing a subscription service through which operators can advertise their brochures within CCM’s premises for an annual fee.

Operators are also able to sell their services through CCM’s Visitor Centre, for which CCM takes a 12.5 per cent commission.

Mr McCarthy runs several tours and has promoted his business activities and subscribed to CCM’s services since about 2003. He has displayed his brochures at CCM’s Visitor Centre and sold his tours through the centre.

The judge noted that the terms and conditions of membership gave CCM the right to terminate membership in certain circumstances.

The general manager of CCM, Andrew Brice, said the organisation frequently had difficulties with Mr McCarthy, who would criticise and question decisions made by staff of the Visitor Centre, and would question various policies.

Mr Brice said that from about 2010, CCM began having concerns about Mr McCarthy’s brochures because he was continuing to display brochures for services that had been discontinued. Details of some services had been crossed out and new prices drawn in vivid marker. He had discontinued tours of Christchurch homes and gardens and simply stamped over this information to show they were discontinued.

CCM decided not to display the brochures until they were updated, triggering a new round of arguments.

On December 6, 2010, Mr Brice wrote to Mr McCarthy about “constantly harassing front line staff in the Visitor Centre”, and telling him that because of a number of recent episodes where he had behaved in an aggressive and intimidating manner to the staff, his membership was being terminated.

Mr McCarthy took issue with CCM’s decision about his brochures and its right to terminate his membership.

Judge Kellar ruled that CCM was entitled to terminate his membership “given what it perceived to be the state of the brochures”. He said: “Mr McCarthy’s conduct towards CCM staff was of such a nature that CCM was entitled to terminate his membership.”

He said Mr McCarthy would have had to establish that he had suffered loss “as a result of any wrongful repudiation of the contract”.

There was no doubt that Mr McCarthy had suffered significant loss of business following the February 2011 earthquake.

“He has failed to prove on the balance of probabilities that any loss he suffered occurred as a consequence of CCM refusing to display his brochures and terminating his membership. The loss is, however, attributable entirely to the downturn in tourist business that followed that cataclysmic event,” said the judge.

He ruled that Mr McCarthy’s claim failed, and ordered him to pay costs.

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Kaikoura’s cut-off community clubbed together to fly a local mum to Christchurch in a Cessna for her son’s sentencing.

And now creative justice will see the son, Timothy John Williams, winging his way back to Kaikoura with his mum on Friday to help with the earthquake clean-up.

Williams, 38, has no particular skills but he is described as a willing worker.

His family has arranged plenty of support up there, but he will also find plenty of work to be done and he won’t be able to go anywhere.

As his defence counsel Tim Fournier said, it will also take him away from Christchurch and the scene of his descent into gambling and drug use.

Williams was appearing for sentencing on charges involving methamphetamine and cannabis.

Judge Farish wanted to give him home detention and get him back to Kaikoura with his family.

“There are plenty of whanau there who are not going to let him go off and access drugs and misbehave,” she said.

Having him on home detention is not possible with the state of the roads. The monitoring bracelet runs on GPS, but if there is some breach, the monitoring company has to be able to get there within a specified time from Blenheim.

There is also no local probation officer, though Judge Farish was assured that the Narcotics Anonymous organisation was still operating.

She decided to put the sentencing off to December 21 and get Williams out of custody in Christchurch and onto the return flight to Kaikoura on Friday.

He will have to stay at his mother’s address, which is not too badly damage. He will be under a curfew, and will have to take counselling as required. He will not be allowed to have or use alcohol or drugs.

On December 21, if the roads are not open, his court appearance will be by telephone.

On that date, Judge Farish will decide whether she is able to put him on home detention, or come up with some more creative criminal justice.

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