Name suppression has lifted on an accomplished con-woman, Ann-Marie Kathrine Smith, after her appeal to the High Court fizzled today.

Smith appeared briefly in the courtroom, spoke to her defence counsel and handed him some papers, but then left the Court House before the hearing began.

Smith, also known as Anna-Ria Melroy, and Anne Marie Fraser Smith, 30, can now be named as the woman who admitted two charges of obtaining money by deception from two woman victims. In one case, she met a stranger at a bank and within a short period she told her such a story of family misfortune that she managed to convince her to loan her $3000.

She has received previous publicity for amassing more than $40,000 in rent arrears and bond money owed to several landlords, including Housing New Zealand, in the five years to 2016.

She was then arrested in May 2016 on two charges obtaining money by deception, and pleaded not guilty. She switched those pleas to guilty at a case review hearing on January 24.

There had been no previous name suppression but she made a belated bid to have an interim order made when she realised that a reporter was present who was intending to report the case.

Judge Gary MacAskill ruled that there were no grounds for the suppression to be granted, but Smith immediately filed her own papers for an appeal to the High Court which meant the non-publication order remained in place in the meantime.

The appeal hearing came before Justice Rachel Dunningham in the High Court two weeks ago. New defence counsel Glenn Henderson said he had received no instructions from Smith until the hearing was beginning, but he said there could be grounds for suppression because of extreme hardship to a family member and an adjournment was granted to today.

Mr Henderson did not hear from Smith during the adjournment and the documents he expected did not arrive. He told Justice Nick Davidson today that he had expected Smith to provide him with documents from the Canterbury District Health Board, Hillmorton Hospital, her doctor, and the Child Youth and Family service.

Just before today’s hearing, Smith had arrived and given him a doctor’s certificate about mental health and self-harm issues but it did not cover the matters on which he needed to present detailed evidence.

He asked for another adjournment to give Smith a further chance to present an application based on “extreme hardship to a family member” if her name was published.

Justice Davidson said Mr Henderson was “battling on in an engaging and determined way” but he did not believe that even if the documentary evidence was provided that it would meet the test for “extreme hardship” that would allow a suppression order to be made.

Crown prosecutor Chris Bernhardt said that although there was a possibility that the material might be made in future, the application seemed to be “relatively speculative”.

Justice Davidson said Smith had been given opportunities to present her application. “But something far more concrete and detailed would be needed to provide any weight to the argument advanced.” A recent medical certificate provided did not relate to the application before the court.

“Even the indication now given by Mr Henderson doesn’t demonstrate there is any substance in this appeal whatsoever and for that reason it is dismissed,” said the judge.

Police told the court in January, when Smith pleaded guilty, that on December 18, 2015, at 5.15pm she was in Kiwibank’s New Brighton branch, when she approached the woman victim who was at the counter addressing mail.

Smith said she needed money urgently but the bank would not give her a loan because she had no identification. She said her identification had been burnt in a house fire.

She said her heat pump had exploded that morning and she had been awoken by a explosion at her front door. She gave the victim a fictitious address.

Smith said she had two children. She said one child was badly burned in the fire and was in Christchurch Hospital awaiting transfer to Starship Hospital.

She said her father had died in the Canterbury earthquake, her mother had passed away in November 2015, and her grandmother had just died.

She told the woman she had found another house but had no money and had spent her last $500 on the bond, and the landlord required another $2300.

Police said: “The victim took pity on her and said she would give her the money. She went to the counter and withdrew $3000 cash to cover the bond and food and gave it to the defendant.”

The defendant said she would pay the victim back on Christmas Eve when her inheritance would come through. They exchanged contact details.

That night, Smith phoned the victim and told her she was at Christchurch Hospital with her child who needed to be flown to Australia for treatment and she didn’t have any money. However, she did not ask for more money and the victim didn’t offer any.

On December 20, the victim received a text from the defendant saying she would give her all the money back in a few days. More than a year on, the victim had received no money.

When spoken to by the police, she confirmed she had been at the bank and the woman had given her $3000. But she denied the woman’s account and said the victim had told lies. She said she intended to pay the money back.

On March 11, 2016, Smith went to a woman’s house in Woolston, where she talked about a trip to Rarotonga. She said she had found cheap flights, and the woman gave her a cheque for $495 to pay for part of the flights.

The defendant cashed the cheque but bought no tickets. Instead, she paid the money to associates. The victim has not heard from her since. When interviewed by the police, Smith said what she had done was wrong and she was embarrassed.

Smith is on bail and is due for sentencing on the fraud charges on April 12.

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A man on home detention for trading child abuse sex videos – including toddlers crying for their mothers as they were abused – is in custody after being found parked in his car outside a school.

The man has continued name suppression, which was granted at his sentencing in January, when he was granted the maximum 12-month term of home detention in place of a jail term.

At that sentencing, Judge Emma Smith imposed home detention conditions that he was not allowed access to the internet and was not to associate with anyone aged under 16 without approval.

He was arrested on Friday, with the Community Probation Service alleging a breach of his home detention sentence because tracking had showed he had been parked outside Wharenui School for six minutes during an approved absence from his home.

They have also filed an application to review the home detention sentence because they say it has broken down because the 49-year-old man is aggressive and hostile towards probation officers.

The case was adjourned from Friday for a bail hearing yesterday before the judge who imposed the sentence.

Details that emerge from bail hearings are covered by an automatic suppression order, but some limited details of the hearings can be reported.

Probation opposed the man’s release on bail, when the bail application was made by his defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger.

The man denies the breach of the home detention sentence and opposes the review of the sentence.

Judge Smith heard the application and decided to refuse bail. She remanded the man in custody to a case review hearing on May 23.

The man is a father, who has now been estranged from his wife for some years. He had pleaded guilty to 16 charges of possession of objectionable images or videos for supply, or supplying them, and 15 possession charges.

Children aged one or two years were heard crying out for their mothers during one of the videos, said Judge Smith. There were an estimated 45 individual victims in the material, though they had not been identified.

She said the man had used a peer-to-peer file sharing system to download the files. The system meant that the files on his computer could be accessed by others and this had happened 16 times.

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Troy Kevin Taylor murder trial, day three: Some of the 59 injuries noted on 14-month-old Ihaka Paora Braxton Stokes could have been caused by the efforts to resuscitate him, a doctor acknowledged on the third day of the trial of Troy Kevin Taylor who is charged with his murder.

Dr Tony Smith, who is the medical director for St John in New Zealand and a specialist at Auckland City Hospital, gave evidence on the third day of Taylor’s trial before Justice Cameron Mander and a jury in the High Court at Christchurch.

Taylor, 23, denies charges of assaulting the child on July 2, 2015, and murdering him on July 3. The Crown is calling evidence from 36 witnesses during the trial which will take about two weeks. The defence has accused Ihaka’s mother, Mikala Stokes, of causing the fatal injuries.

Dr Smith was asked his opinion on what injuries could have been caused by the attempts by Taylor to revive Ihaka under instructions from a 111 call-taker after the boy was found injured in his cot, and by paramedics who attended the scene at the house in Bryndwr.

Fluid was found around both lungs and it was possible that this could part of resuscitation, but it was unusual, he said.

A pneumothorax – air in the chest cavity causing the lung to not fully inflate – had probably been caused by medics who inserted a needle to try to clear the suspected pneumothorax.

There was bruising on the right side of the upper lip, which had possibly been caused when a plastic tube had been inserted in Ihaka’s mouth and into his windpipe to create an airway to get oxygen into his lungs. It was possible that the lip could be caught against the upper teeth when the tube was placed.

But Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh then detailed the other injuries reported: bruising to the face, head, and ears, bruising to the shoulders and upper arms, fractures of the shoulder blades and forearm, compression fractures of the thoracic vertebrae, and head injuries including brain swelling.

Mr Zarifeh asked: “Is there any way in your opinion that any of these injuries could have been caused by CPR?”

Dr Smith replied: “In my opinion it is inconceivable that they could have been caused by CPR or the resuscitation attempts by ambulance personnel.”

Detective Elliot Western gave evidence about speaking to Mikala Stokes about whether she had caused the injuries to Ihaka.

She initially said she did not know, but also referred to the fact that had been known to sleepwalk.

“Really?” the officer replied, and pressed her for a reply to his question.

Miss Stokes told him: “Do I want to say no, because then it makes Troy look very bad?”

He pressed her for an answer about whether she had caused the injuries.

She was crying, and said, “No, I didn’t”, while shaking her head.

An officer had earlier told the trial that Taylor had told him heard a noise from Ihaka’s room during the night and went to check on him because he thought he could have hit his head. He found Ihaka pale and unresponsive in his cot, with blood around his mouth.

The trial is continuing.

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Troy Taylor murder trial, Day Four: A jury has watched minutes of footage of a distraught Troy Kevin Taylor when he was left alone in a police interview room after being interviewed about the death of toddler Ihaka Paora Braxton Stokes in July 2015.

Taylor, 23, denied causing the toddler’s injuries and told the interviewing officer: “I would lay down my life for him. That boy is everything to me.”

Taylor described in the video interview how he had carried out CPR on 14-month-old Ihaka as he gasped for air, and then the officer took a break to confer with his colleagues.

While he was left alone in the interview room for six minutes, Taylor sat quietly but clearly distraught, sniffling and wiping his eyes, before the officer resumed the interview. The entire six-minute interval was played for the jury on the fourth day of the the trial before Justice Cameron Mander and a jury.

Taylor denies charges of assaulting the child on July 2, 2015, and murdering him on July 3. The Crown will call evidence from 36 witnesses during the trial which will take about two weeks. The Crown alleges that Taylor “lost it” and injured the child, but the defence has accused the boy’s mother, Mikala Stokes, of being the person who caused the fatal injuries.

A post mortem examination indicated Ihaka had 59 injuries. He was found unwell in his cot by Taylor during the night. Resuscitation began and he was rushed to hospital but he was pronounced dead about an hour after being found.

Taylor said he returned in the evening to the Bryndwr home he shared with Miss Stokes, after he had been out getting tattooed and buying groceries.

He found Ihaka had been put to bed in his cot but he was still awake and Taylor got into the cot and cuddled him to sleep. After he and Miss Stokes went to bed, he heard a thud “clear as day” and believed Ihaka had fallen in his cot and hit his head. He had previously heard that noise when he was watching, when Ihaka hit his head.

He went to check on him after that, and found him lying face down, with blood at the side of his mouth, unresponsive and struggling for breath. He woke Mikala and they called emergency services and began CPR.

The officer questioned Taylor about being the person who was with him before he was put to sleep.

Taylor said: “I would never, ever lay a finger on that boy. He means the world to me. I love that kid like he is my own son. He is my son. I would never do anything to hurt him.”

The trial is continuing.

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Home detention has been imposed for a five-on-one gang attack in the Riccarton bus lounge.

The two remaining men involved – Nikora Lake Siaosi, 20, of Mairehau, and Jahphire Tekouaterangi Travis, 20, of Aranui – received six-month home detention terms at a Christchurch District Court sentencing by Judge Paul Kellar.

One man, Reggie Kenneth Roberts, 22, was jailed for 13 months in January for the gang attack, and for a later confrontation with police at Cheviot.

Two younger offenders have been dealt with in the Youth Court.

The bus lounge attack about 7pm on March 17, 2016, has been described in court as “a family matter”, but some of those involved barked like dogs – an indication of Mongrel Mob involvement – when cars were stopped by police at Cheviot to search for weapons.

Siaosi and Travis admitted charges of assault with intent to injure for the bus lounge attack, and Siaosi also admitted aggravated disorderly behaviour for his role in the confrontation with police.

A charge of behaving threateningly laid against Travis over a separate confrontation with police who were making a bail check at an address in Aranui was withdrawn.

Defence counsel for Siaosi, April Kelland, said her client had received a call saying that a younger family member had been harassed by the eventual assault victim at Riccarton, and went to the bus lounge where others had also converged.

Siaosi accepted that his reaction went too far. There had been provocation because as he arrived, the victim had lifted his jacket and showed him that he had a knife in a sheath on his belt.

He was now working as a fire protection installer. He was in a stable relationship with a baby due in June and his aim now was to settle down and be a good parent.

Tom Stevens, for Travis, said the earlier threat to a younger family member explained what the group did, but did not justify it. Travis accepted that the approach they took was wrong. His client had had “a somewhat difficult upbringing”. After the sentencing, he was planning to attend a carpentry course. He was “heading in the right direction”, Mr Stevens said.

Judge Kellar said other members of the group had used a tomahawk to smash the windows on the victim’s car outside the lounge, and another of them had struck him twice with it on the head when they were inside the lounge. Siaosi had punched him in the head several times, and Travis punched and kicked him.

The victim had bruising, a black eye, tender ribs, and a cut on his head that needed seven stitches.

When the police later stopped cars at Cheviot to search for weapons involved in the incident, Siaosi confronted one of the badly-outnumbered officers, and one of the group began barking like a dog to encourage the others and intimidate the police. The officers had to draw pistols during the confrontation, and the local fire brigade eventually arrived to support the police.

It had been “deplorable behaviour” by those in the cars, said Judge Kellar.

He considered prison terms, but decided home detention sentences could be allowed because they were young and had no prior relevant convictions.

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A huge fight broke out inside a Christchurch District Court when a 20-year-old accused of murder appeared.

Six police and court escort staff were needed to subdue and handcuff Cyle Robert Jetson, and more police kept family members in court out of the struggle.

The door to the No 8 District Court had wrongly been locked, preventing Court security staff from getting in to help control the situation.

Further appearances when the judge moved the sitting to another court room, also led to shouting and shoving on a landing in the Court House.

When the appearances had taken place, there was another confrontation outside the Court House involving the family and supporters, police, court security staff, and media.

Three people have been jointly charged with murder over the death of Pierclaudio Raviola, who was found injured in a carpark at Sumner at the weekend.

He has since died in hospital and the three charged with wounding him with intent to cause grievous bodily harm at Saturday court appearances, faced murder charges when they were brought to court today.

All three have been transferred to the High Court, in custody without plea, for appearances on April 12.

The series of incidents began with Jetson’s appearance as part of a Youth Court sitting, because one of the alleged offenders is aged 16, and they are jointly charged.

Family were allowed into the seating in the tiny courtroom, but Judge Stephen O’Driscoll warned that he would clear the court if there was any more calling out. “Love you,” calls had been made by Jetson and supporters outside the courtroom as he was brought in.

Jetson then made a gesture and Judge O’Driscoll told him: “Any signs from you and you are out and I’ll deal with the matter in your absence.”

Jetson entered no pleas to the murder and burglary charges he faces and was remanded, but lunged at one of the people in court as he was being taken out.

Six police piled on to subdue him on the floor of the court room, while Judge O’Driscoll and the Crown prosecutor left the room through the judge’s door.

Others were deterred from joining in by other police, and by one of their number, a woman who confronted them and helped to stop further trouble.

Jetson was handcuffed and taken out to the cells after several minutes, complaining of injuries from the struggle.

Deborah Jean Tihema, 38, then appeared handcuffed in another courtroom when Judge O’Driscoll shifted the sitting. She was remanded to the same date on charges of murder and theft of a car.

The last appearance was by the 16-year-old, who faces charges of murder and burglary.

More family was allowed into the courtroom for his appearances and introduced themselves to the judge as cousins, aunts, an uncle, and a caregiver.

The boy was barefoot, but not handcuffed. Judge O’Driscoll warned him against making comments or giving signs.

He was remanded to the same date in the High Court with the normal Youth Court suppressions applying. Like the others, he was remanded in custody without plea, but he will be held at the Youth Justice facility, at Te Puna Wai, in Rolleston.

No bail applications were made for any of them.

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A jury will soon consider experts’ theories about how memory works as it decides its verdicts in a trial on allegations of historic sexual abuse.

Two memory experts – called by the Crown and the defence – gave evidence in the trial, but the Crown said it was not a “trial by experts”.

Defence counsel Tim Fournier said the experts had agreed that memories “can be wholly inaccurate”.

“You can get memories of events that never happened,” he told the Christchurch District Court jury in his closing address on day seven of the trial before Judge Alistair Garland.

“If you have got a wrong memory, you don’t know it’s wrong,” Mr Fournier said. He pointed to what he said were inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the Crown witness’ accounts of abuse involving two girls, from 1989 to 2003. This raised serious questions about witness reliability.

He said one witness said the police had told her she “needed to sort out fact from anger, because of course I was angry”.

Judge Garland will sum up for the jury on Wednesday, before it retires to consider verdicts for 13 remaining charges.

Colin Robert Williams, 49, denies charges of inducing an indecent act with a girl aged under 12, ten of indecent assault, doing an indecent act on a girl aged under 12, and sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection.

Crown prosecutor Kathy Basire said in her closing address to the jury that the defence was claiming that there had been no sexual offending, and allegations put at the trial were the result of the complainants lying or their memories were either distorted or inaccurate.

She expected that the defence would say that one of the complainants had mistaken Williams’ actions many years ago, and the other woman had learned about that woman’s allegations and they had somehow become part of her memory.

The defence would say that led her to incorporate sexual abuse into her narrative, arising from own internal grievances.

But Miss Basire said it was “simply implausible” that two people could have separately “got it wrong” with false memories of abuse by the same person.

“The Crown says to you that is a highly unlikely coincidence,” she said.

The defence had called a memory expert to dispute the two woman complainants’ memories, but the jury should also consider Williams’ ability to recall things. For nine years, he was “popping pills” daily, smoking cannabis daily, and using alcohol.

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File image. © Andrew Bardwell

A man will serve all of a four-and-a-half year jail term for the knife-point robbery of two Christchurch taxi drivers, which probably netted just over $200.

Matthew James Greenwood, 33, already had a first-strike warning for another aggravated robbery in 2001.

He got his second-strike warning today from Christchurch District Court Judge Stephen O’Driscoll and it means he will serve his latest sentence without parole.

Judge O’Driscoll warned him that if he commits another aggravated robbery – apparently his crime of choice – he will have to serve the maximum term of 14 years’ jail without parole under the three-strikes scheme.

The judge said the vulnerability of workers such as taxi drivers needed to be considered in imposing the sentence. Both drivers were left anxious, nervous and scared after their encounters with Greenwood.

“I should not have to put up with this when I am just trying to do my job,” one of the drivers wrote in his victim impact statement.

When the police arrested Greenwood after the robberies on January 21, he made a run for it. He has a broken leg to show for that effort, though he did insist on standing up as he was sentenced.

Crown prosecutor Sean Mallett said Greenwood was assessed as a medium-to-high risk of reoffending and causing harm to others. One of the drivers had feared for his life, thinking Greenwood would stab him.

Defence counsel Ruth Buddicom said Greenwood had gained little more than $200 from the two robberies, committed to get money for his chronic drug addiction. He had a troubled background, and was ashamed that he had ended up in this position.

Judge O’Driscoll said Greenwood had ordered two taxis on his cellphone, at 2.30pm and midnight on January 21, and had then pulled out the knife and robbed the drivers. Neither driver was injured.

Greenwood had come to New Zealand from the United States twice. Since his second arrival in 2010, he had accumulated 16 convictions, before the latest offending.

His life had unravelled when Hurricane Katrina hit the southern United States in 2005. He had lost his job, his home, his relationship, and had been assaulted in the looting that followed. He took to drinking a litre of spirits a day, and later was drinking two boxes of ready-to-drink mixed spirits a day. He then moved on to drugs.

He had now been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder. He had been homeless for a time, and had an increased risk of compulsive behaviour. For a time, he had begged on the streets of New Zealand but felt “humiliated and angry about the poor response he got”, Judge O’Driscoll said.

Imposing the four-and-a-half year jail term, the judge urged Greenwood to do whatever counselling or programmes he could in prison, to address the factors that led to his offending. “It seems to me there is a deep-seated issue that needs to be addressed,” he said.

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A High Court jury has found Troy Kevin Taylor guilty of the murder and assault of 14-month old Ihaka Paora Braxton Stokes in July 2015.

The Christchurch jury came back with the guilty verdicts on the ninth day of the trial and four hours of deliberations in the jury room.

They agreed with the Crown that 23-year-old Taylor, who had offered to adopt Ihaka and marry his mother, Mikala Stokes, assaulted him on Thursday July 2, and murdered him the next day.

The trial heard that Taylor told Miss Stokes he had found something was wrong with Ihaka, who was injured in his cot.

Ihaka died in hospital about an hour later, and the post mortem examination by a Wellington forensic pathologist, Dr Amy Sparks, showed that he had 59 injuries, including broken bones, and brain swelling from a head injury. She said the cause of death was head injuries, and the various injuries were not explainable by a single accidental cause. She considered they were inflicted injuries which she described as “multiple blunt force injuries”.

Taylor’s defence counsel alleged that Miss Stokes, heavily pregnant and coping with a child with an ear infection, could not be ruled out as being the person who caused the injuries. She was the only other person in the Bryndwr house at the time.

A paediatrician, Janet Ferguson told Justice Cameron Mander and the jury that in her opinion the injuries to the jaw of the infant the day before his death were not consistent with a fall while he was in his cot. She had seen Ihaka at the hospital on the night he died, and said that the shape of the bruise was not consistent with any hard surface in the cot.

Taylor had told the police soon after the child’s death, that he had gone to check him the night before after hearing a bang which he thought was the sound of Ihaka falling and hitting himself on the cot.

Professor Colin Smith, a neuropathologist, said he believed that Ihaka would have become unconscious from his head injuries only minutes after he received them.

Taylor told the jury that his repeated concussion injuries never caused him to lose control or strike Ihaka.

He said he had repeated injuries from the time he got his first concussion in a sports injury when he was aged 11 or 12. The last one had occurred in 2014, before he met Miss Stokes.

On that occasion he was hospitalised for 10 days. He was left feeling nauseous and dizzy and lost feeling in his right leg for a time. He was unable to work. At the time of Ihaka’s death, he was taking medication which was improving his symptoms.

He told the trial about his relationship with the infant, who was not his natural son. “I don’t care what anyone thinks, He is my son. I used to consider him my little shadow. He would follow me everywhere.”

Justice Mander thanked the jury, saying it was apparent they were extremely careful and diligent in discharging their obligations.

He remanded Taylor in custody for sentencing on June 9, and asked for a pre-sentence report and victim impact statement to be prepared.

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A neighbourhood clash between a man with former gang connections and a foreign couple has led to confrontation, court appearances, and jail time.

Alvito Iese, 44, was yesterday handed a two-month jail term on a charge of intimidation.

Since he has been in custody since his arrest in early February, he will be released straight away.

The neighbours he clashed have already returned to Austria with their two children aged three and five years.

Judge Paul Kellar commented at the sentencing that they appeared to have played a part in the situation.

He told Iese: “I have seen material that suggests that the victims in this matter may have contributed to the overall behaviour that has put you in this situation.”

Iese was charged with wilfully attempting to pervert the course of justice by intimidating the couple with implied threats to dissuade them from giving evidence.

He had been refused bail and was held in custody on remand until yesterday, when the Crown agreed to amend the charge to intimidation and he pleaded guilty.

Judge Kellar said the amendment meant the maximum penalty dropped dramatically. The new charge carried a maximum of three months’ jail, instead of seven years.

The material he was given by defence counsel Bryan Green showed that some of the series of incidents “is not a credit to the victims”.

Iese has had gang connections in the past, but his record shows no serious offending since 2008, and the judge was shown a letter from a registered nurse which spoke of him being “a kind man, trying his best to stay on a straight line”.

There was also a letter from City Care, where Iese worked last year, commending him for going “above and beyond”. He had continued resuscitation efforts for 20 minutes on an elderly man who had collapsed in the street, until ambulance staff arrived. “You were extremely professional, and emphathetic,” the City Care official wrote.

But things unravelled for Iese over a pothole in the footpath and parked cars blocking access along the Richmond Street where he lived with his family.

The registered nurse was also concerned about the pothole posing a danger to children on scooters and tricycles.

Trying to get it fixed led to a confrontation with the foreign couple.

The nurse wrote to the judge that she believed Iese had been called “a fat, black bastard” by the woman, who had fuelled the situation considerably by racial comments.

The police arrested him in January for intimidation, and then he began calling out to the neighbours, calling the man a “nark” and saying he would plead not guilty and they would have to give evidence.

He stared at them as he passed their house, stood outside the address just staring, and took photographs of the man with his young daughter on their driveway. He also called the woman “a racist South African bitch”.

There was more intimidation and a challenge to the man to come and fight him. Iese called him a coward.

The police said the couple had feared for the welfare of themselves and their children and Crown prosecutor Nicola Pointer said they had now returned to Austria.

Since the dispute flared in January, Iese and his family have been evicted from their Richmond home.

And the pothole has been fixed.

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Bail was opposed for a Hornby man charged after a man was found shot in the leg with a shotgun overnight in Christchurch.

The injured man was found in Dickson Crescent, Hornby, about 7pm on Thursday after police were called to an incident they said appeared to be gang-related.

Paul Leslie Stockford, 32, a labourer, entered no plea to a charge of firing a shotgun at the other man with intent to do grievous bodily harm, when he appeared in the Christchurch District Court this morning.

Police opposed bail, and defence counsel Chris Nolan said no bail application was being made today.

Stockford was remanded in custody by Judge Tom Gilbert to appear by video-link from prison on April 24.

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“Repossession” of a disputed car came to a rapid halt when a woman opened a bag and showed that it contained a cut-down rifle.

The woman involved, 22-year-old Casebrook consultant Taylor Ellen Newbery, is now in custody awaiting sentencing after admitting three charges in the Christchurch District Court today.

She admitted unlawful possession of the rifle – described as a pistol because it had been cut down – and ammunition, and possession of a pipe for smoking methamphetamine.

She pleaded guilty when the police withdrew a charge of presenting the rifle during the civil dispute which took place on Station Road, near Heathcote Valley Primary School, about 1.10pm on March 19.

She will be sentenced on May 25, with a pre-sentence report to consider her suitability for home or community detention. Judge Josephine Bouchier remanded her in custody, where Newbery has been held since her arrest on the day of the incident.

The incident involved Newbery and a man after they became involved in a civil dispute over a car in Newbery’s possession.

The victim and four associates arrived in Station Road to take possession of the car which was parked on the roadside. Police said that as the vehicle was being “secured”, Newbery approached the group and a dispute arose.

She unzipped a handbag she was carrying and showed it to the group so that they could see that it contained a cut-down semi-automatic .22 rifle. The rifle was loaded with a magazine containing six live rounds.

She said to the group, “I’ll do it.”

Police were called and when they searched the car they found a pipe for smoking methamphetamine.

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A 77-year-old man has gone on trial on sex abuse charges dating back as far as the 1950s.

The man denied eight charges as the trial began in the High Court at Christchurch before Justice David Gendall and a jury.

The Crown is expected to call up to eight witnesses in the week-long trial, which alleges offending against two girls between 1955 and 1975. The offending is said to have occurred in Christchurch and on the West Coast.

The man is charged with raping one of the girls, when he was a teenager, and several charges of indecently assaulting both girls when one was aged up to 13 years and the other aged up to 14. He has name suppression.

Crown prosecutor Deidre Orchard told the court that one woman would tell of an encounter with the man which she did not understand at the time, when she was aged five or six.

“As an adult she reviewed the sensations,” said Mrs Orchard, and she would tell of the sights and movements involved in what happened.

“She put them all together and appreciated that she must have been raped,” she said.

One woman would tell of indecent touching by the man when she visited his house. The other woman would give evidence of the man touching her and performing a sexual act.

Defence counsel Pip Hall QC said the rape allegation was so old that the prosecution had to rely on the 1908 Crimes Act, rather than the current legislation.

He said: “The defence says that the memories of these two complainants are wrong and have been reconstructed over the years because of antipathy each of them has towards (the defendant).”

The defence said there was ample room for their memories to have been reconstructed or contaminated by the delay, the distance, their ages, and repetition of the allegations over the years, he said.

The trial is continuing.

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A Kaiapoi business owner and his companies have been fined $22,000 and ordered to apply for restrospective resource consents on three properties for unauthorised earthworks.

David Clemence, and two of his companies, Clemence Drilling Contractors Ltd and DC Aqua Properties Ltd, were sentenced on five charges of not complying with abatement notices from the Waimakariri District Council.

Crown prosecutor Sean Mallett said the council wanted Clemence to apply for the retrospective resource consents, so that the work could be checked in case remedial work had to be done.

He said the wider public district plan should be followed and people should not go ahead and do the work themselves.

The Waimakariri District Council did not accept the report Clemence had provided to the court from a registered agricultural business consultant which said the land was better than before the earthworks, as no assessment of flood modelling around the area had been carried out, he said.

Defence counsel Craig Ruane said on the two properties in Tram Road the work was finished. The other property on Woodend Beach Road was the largest operation and is still a work in progress.

Judge Paul Kellar said Clemence and his companies did not comply with abatement notices, and used the land in a way that contravened the Waimakariri District Plan, by exceeding permitted levels of earthworks.

He said Clemence got topsoil from a developer who was subdividing land but closing down for Christmas. He wanted the soil removed before his staff started back at work again.

Clemence had the machinery to remove the soil, and took it to the sections to boost the quality and productivity of the land.

He was issued abatement notices from the council, but continued removing the topsoil thinking it would cause problems for the developer, and decided the work was compliant, Judge Kellar said.

The offending was deliberate and relatively serious, he said. Clemence knew the requirements for resource consents, but continued to do the work while waiting to see what the authorities would do about it.

He fined Clemence $17,000, Clemence Drilling $2500, DC Aqua Properties $2500, plus solicitors’ fees, and court costs.

Judge Kellar said Clemence had to make the restrospective resource consent applications, and 90 percent of the fines were awarded to the Waimakariri District Council.

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A man and woman convicted by a jury of the manslaughter of  “AJ” Arran Gairns at Ashburton have both been jailed for three years seven months.

Almost all details of the sentencing in the High Court at Christchurch have been suppressed because of another trial that is still to be held.

Justice Gerald Nation barred media from reporting the submissions by counsel and his own sentencing remarks.

Nor were the media allowed to report the contents of Mr Gairn’s family’s victim impact statements read in court.

All the evidence in the jury trial was suppressed when it took place in the High Court in Timaru in February, ending with guilty verdicts on manslaughter charges for Olivia Toby Frances Lucas, 29, and Verdun Ashley Perry, 26, of Mayfield.

Perry was also found guilty on a charge of assaulting Mr Gairns with intent to rob him. Lucas had pleaded guilty to that charge during the trial.

Sentencing was transferred to Christchurch.

Mr Gairns, a 34-year-old from Ashburton, was found dead in an industrial area near Ashburton, on June 1, 2014, and four people were charged over his death.

One man who pleaded guilty has already been jailed for four years eight months on manslaughter and assault with intent to rob charges. Justice Nation said the suppression orders would continue until the trial of the fourth person.

Lucas and Perry were given first strike warnings under the system that imposes heavier penalties on repeat violent offenders at their time of the guilty verdicts.

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A man who stabbed a dog that had leapt out of a car and bit him, has been ordered to pay the veterinarian’s bill for the emergency operation the dog needed.

He was also sentenced to do 100 hours’ community work, but has declined a restorative justice meeting with the owners.

Brian Charles Akurangi, 52, pleaded guilty to the charge of ill-treating the dog by stabbing it twice with a knife, in the Christchurch District Court today.

In March, Akurangi pushed his bike up a driveway past a car, and the dog leapt out at him and bit his arm. Akurangi landed on the ground and hit his head, then went inside his house and grabbed a knife. He stabbed the dog twice.

Defence counsel April Kelland said Akurangi had been traumatised by the attack, and was dazed and concerned about children playing outside. He admitted it was an inappropriate way to act, and moved address after the incident.

Judge Jane Farish said the circumstances were unusual, and sentenced Akurangi to 100 hours’ community work and a reparation payment of $1417 for the veterinarian’s bill.

She noted that no action had been taken against the dog that bit him.

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The trial of Christchurch lawyer Steven Welch Rollo has been adjourned part-heard to be continued at further sessions before a visiting judge in May.

An out-of-town judge, Judge Josephine Bouchier, was brought to the city for the hearing which began in the Christchurch District Court on Tuesday.

After hearing evidence on Tuesday, the judge-alone trial continued with legal argument on Wednesday before it was adjourned. The police were calling evidence from eight witnesses.

Rollo, 42, denies charges of refusing to give his name and address to a police officer, and possession of the class A drug methamphetamine.

The charges arise from what the police said was a traffic stop on July 1, 2016, but the defence has challenged the legality of the stop, and the arrest and search in which the drugs were found. Rollo claims he was roughly handled and assaulted by police, but police witnesses have denied that.

The hearing is now scheduled to continue for several days, from May 29.

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File image. © Andrew Bardwell

It “defied belief” that a sex offender was able to gain access to four more young victims while living under a extended supervision order, said the Crown as it sought preventive detention for a 64-year-old.

Crown prosecutor Claire Boshier said Charlie Neho had “maxed out” his risk assessments, in reports by health assessors.

Justice Rachel Dunningham said at his sentencing in the High Court at Christchurch: “I cannot think of a clearer case where preventive detention should be imposed.”

She imposed the open-ended jail term on Neho after he had pleaded guilty to 13 charges of indecently assaulting four victims ranging in age from nine to 20 years, from 2005 to 2015.

The Avonside labourer had recently been released from a prison term for sex offending when the latest offending began. He had done the Kia Marama treatment programme for child sex offenders in prison twice, and he was subject to release conditions and then an extended supervision order when the latest offending happened.

Miss Boshier told the judge: “It defies belief that he was able to gain access to all these victims over that period of time despite the supports available under the extended supervision order. It was meant to protect the community and obviously it hasn’t.”

She said he was now aged 64 but old age was not lessening his offending. The Crown saw preventive detention as the only option for the court. He had not changed his entrenched attitudes despite significant support available to him.

Neho had required counselling because he had been abused himself, but that counselling had had no effect, she said.

Defence counsel Allister Davis urged the judge to impose a finite prison term instead of preventive detention. “He’s got to see light at the end of the tunnel, and preventive detention certainly closes that door.”

Neho had taken responsibility and pleaded guilty immediately, he said. A finite jail term would see him released at an age when he was no longer a threat to society.

Justice Dunningham said Neho’s offending involved him touching and kissing sleeping girls. He had caused serious harm and the victim impact statements made distressing reading. One girl wrote: “Just because it’s over physically does not mean it’s over mentally and emotionally.”

The girls spoke of on-going difficulties and one had self-harmed and contemplated suicide. She wrote: “I hurt myself to stop thinking about his hands all over me and his tongue in my mouth.”

Neho had been jailed in 1985 for rape, and for indecent assault in 1988 and again in 2000. He had been warned by another judge in 2000 that if he did not successfully take the available treatment he would be back in court to face possible preventive detention.

He was now assessed as a high risk of reoffending. A pre-sentence report by a health assessor commented: “He has entrenched characteristics and cognitive distortions that minimise and justify his sexual offending.”

She imposed preventive detention with a minimum non-parole term of five years before he can be considered for release. He will also be registered for 15 years as a sex offender, and he was given a first strike warning that imposes heavier penalties on repeat offenders.

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October 30 has been set for the trial of a 20-year-old woman accused of murdering a one-year-old baby more than two years ago.

Shayal Upashna Sami’s trial in the High Court at Christchurch is expected to take two to three weeks.

The trial was delayed in February and the new date was set at a pre-trial callover before Justice Gerald Nation today.

Sami, a babysitter, was charged in January 2015 with the murder of Aaliyah Ashlyn Chand. Sami and a neighbour took the injured child to Christchurch Hospital where she died with her family around her. The child had died of blunt force impact injury.

Jonathan Eaton QC appeared for the defence; Deirdre Elsmore appeared for the Crown.

Sami is on bail, pending another pre-trial callover in September, and then the trial beginning in October.

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Two men from Russia and a Ukrainian woman have been charged after authorities allegedly found 5kg of MDMA – commonly known as ecstasy – in a suitcase at Christchurch International Airport.

It is understood the drugs have an estimated street value of about $2 million.

The arrests were made by the Customs Department yesterday and the three accused appeared in the Christchurch District Court today.

The charges specify that the powdered drug was found in a Samsonite suitcase.

Those charged are Vladimir Turovsky, a 32-year-old dive shop owner who is described as a Russian national, Vadim Shkolnitski, 35, a truck driver from Russia, and Ganna Manchenko, a 31-year-old Ukrainian woman employed as a cook.

They all face charges of importing the drug and possession of it for supply.

Steve Hembrow appeared as defence counsel for Manchenko, Bryan Green for Shkolnitski, and Nick Rout for Turovsky. Courtney Martyn appeared for the Customs Department.

All three defence lawyers said no bail applications would be made today, and asked Judge Tom Gilbert for remands without plea to April 28.

They indicated that applications might eventually be made for the release of the three on electronically monitored bail.

Mr Hembrow said the necessary documentation for a bail hearing would be filed in the meantime.

The three will not appear by video-link but will be brought in from the Christchurch prisons for their appearance on April 28, so that they can continue to work with a Russian interpreter. An interpreter was helping them at today’s appearance.

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