A judge was left pondering what to do with a 73-year-old sex offender who has not offended for 40 years and has already completed his rehabilitation.
Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish noted that although Peter Lindsay Armitage had pleaded guilty to two indecent assault charges involving a boy aged 5 to 8 years before 1981, he had no recollection of the boy.
The offending took place on a chicken farm in North Eyre Road in rural North Canterbury before 1981.
Armitage was convicted and sentenced for historic sex offending in 2017, involving a boy in 1977 and 1978. After his sentencing, the police appealed for other victims to come forward. A man now aged 45 approached the police in August 2017.
Defence counsel Craig Ruane said Armitage did not dispute the Crown’s summary of facts but simply had no recollection of the boy and his family. He handed the judge updated references from members of Armitage’s family, and a letter of apology.
Judge Farish wondered, “What am I going to do with him?”
She noted that Armitage had not offended for more than 40 years. He had completed the Stop rehabilitation programme and its report assessed him as being highly unlikely to reoffend. He had a strong level of “protective factors” and “coping strategies” in his life.
She believed that if the latest charges had been before the judge at Armitage’s 2017 sentencing, they would have made little difference to the sentence imposed.
After more than two months of industrial action, court sittings across New Zealand returned to normal this afternoon – at least for now.
A day of mediation on Thursday produced a breakthrough in the dispute that has seen Public Service Association members taking intermittent strike action and working to rule every day.
The PSA said in an announcement on its website that the talks had led to a “break-through” in the negotiations, and an offer will now to put to members.
“The progress made by getting back to the table with Ministry officials has been sufficient for the PSA to agree to suspend industrial action from 1.30pm today that had previously been in place to continue until 7 December,” said Glenn Barclay, the PSA national secretary.
“Furthermore significant progress was made towards bargaining on a revised offer, with a high expected likelihood that negotiations will proceed to a settlement that PSA’s 2000 plus members at the Ministry will then vote on whether to ratify or not.
“The next step is for an agreed document to be finalised between both parties by the end of next week.”
Apart from several strikes that have closed courts around the country for up to half a day, PSA members including Court Safety Officers have been working to rule every day. By all taking their breaks at the same time, sittings have had to stop early for lunch adjournments and at the end of the day.
Also, members have refused to handle appearances by video-link from prisons, police stations, or other courts, so the Ministry of Justice has had the expense of transporting people to courts to make appearances.
The staff have not allowed pre-arranged sentencings unless there is a vulnerable victim, and since mid-November they have been refusing to sign documents.
The rolling stoppages and work-to-rule has meant a growing backlog of work for the courts.
Police allege a Hillmorton Hospital patient was trying to harm himself when he stabbed a woman nurse on Sunday afternoon.
The 42-year-old patient at Christchurch’s Hillmorton Hospital has been remanded in custody on the charge of injuring with intent to injure.
The police have laid an unusual charge of “transferred malice”, because it alleges the patient was trying to injure himself when he injured the woman nurse.
The Press has reported that she was stabbed in the leg with surgical scissors.
The man entered no plea to the charge when he appeared before Judge Tom Gilbert in the Christchurch District Court.
The judge was given a report from the psychiatric nurse who works at the courts, who had seen the man ahead of his appearance.
At the request of duty lawyer Cindy Lee, the judge granted an interim order for name suppression, and remanded him to December 17 in custody to Hillmorton Hospital for a psychiatric report to be prepared during the remand.
More than three years of careful work have gone into a difficult sentence for a night-time intruder with a deteriorating mental state.
Eli Wiremu Williams will have to do community work but he will do it on a marae where he has support rather than in a work gang with other offenders.
In the psychiatric reports prepared over the years of assessments and discussions, the 24-year-old is assessed as being “easily influenced”.
In imposing 150 hours of community work, Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish recommended that Community Probation get him to serve the hours at a rural marae near where he lives, and where he has worked before.
“It will be a safe environment for you, given your background,” she told Williams. “It will be good for you to be amongst whanau.”
Williams was arrested after the incident which took place near Oxford, about 4am on June 28, 2015.
The two residents were asleep on a rural farm property when they were woken by Williams, and Harley Ihaka Tomothy, 27, entering the house without permission.
The intruders demanded to know where a named man lived, but they were at the wrong place and were told the leave.
They did appear to leave but a few minutes later the man who lived there found Timothy walking out of the lounge door carrying a 42-inch television.
He confronted Timothy who punched him in the face. The man ran to the bedroom for safety, but Timothy and Williams pushed their way in and attacked him with kicks and punches.
They left with property worth up to $5000 but it was almost all returned next day. The victim received a broken nose, tenderness to the face, and concussion.
For this aggravated robbery and other violent incidents, Timothy was jailed last year for eight years six months. He was a second strike offender and is having to serve all the sentence. Judge Farish said: “I note that (Timothy) is now quite unwell in terms of his own mental health.”
Defence counsel Margaret Sewell said the Crown had agreed to reduce Williams’ aggravated robbery charge to an aggravated assault and he then pleaded guilty. She hoped that he could be placed on intensive supervision, with a drug and alcohol treatment programme, and anger management counselling.
Judge Farish said the reduced charge reflected Williams’ involvement because he was not aware that a robbery was going to take place. However, he had joined in the violence that had inflicted serious injuries.
He had not been in any trouble since the incident more than three years ago, and reports from a psychiatrist and psychologist had been prepared during the remand. Questions were raised about his level of cognitive functioning and an apparent deterioration in his overall mental health.
She imposed 150 hours of community work at the marae, and a year of intensive supervision with an order that he be assessed for drug and alcohol treatment, and undertake any other counselling that probation directs.
She told Miss Sewell and Crown prosecutor Pip Currie: “I am grateful to counsel. I think that has been a very sensible outcome given the difficulties with this file.”
A motorcyclist who admits posting a YouTube video of his 220km-an-hour ride on Banks Peninsula will try to avoid a term of disqualification from driving.
Dane Allan Montgomery, a 33-year-old painter from Spreydon, told police that he “just got a bit carried away, I guess” with his test ride on his new motorcycle.
He pleaded guilty at the Christchurch District Court today, before Community Magistrate Simon Heale, who remanded him on bail for a hearing on January 21.
Defence counsel Jessica Bibby explained that Montgomery was applying under a section of the Land Transport Act to have a community-based sentence imposed instead of disqualification from driving.
Community Magistrate Heale set dates for the submissions for that hearing, but also asked how many demerit points Montgomery would receive for such a high speed. The speed was actually off the chart for demerits – for going that fast a court appearance would always be required.
Montgomery admitted charges of driving at a dangerous speed and giving false or misleading information to the police.
The police said that about August 24, Montgomery was the driver of his 919cc Honda motorcycle on the Governors Bay-Teddington Road at Teddington when he rode at up to 220km an hour. The speeding took place between Gebbies Pass Road and Bamford Road.
Police received a public complaint after a video of the riding was published on YouTube by Montgomery.
The road is a two-lane road with a 100km-an-hour speed limit.
Police served Mongomery with a request under the Land Transport Act to say who the rider was at the time of the speeding.
On September 11, Montgomery told the police he was not the rider. He said it could have been one of several friends riding his bike, and he was unable to name who the rider was.
After more police inquiries, Montgomery admitted he was the rider. He told police: “I saw there was no-one there. There was no other traffic on the road. I know there’s no hidden driveways or intersections. I just got a bit carried away, I guess.”
The caption on the YouTube video included the comment: “Nice Saturday cruising around the bays while avoiding idiot road users lol.”
A High Court judge has appealed for calm at a weeping, highly emotional court appearance for Darrin Ray Stewart who is charged with the manslaughter of an 18-year-old in a central Christchurch crash.
Stewart has already been assaulted in the street during his remand on bail since his arrest for the November 16 crash in which Alexia Chrissy-Marie Noble-Hazelwood was killed and three other passengers were injured.
Stewart, a 19-year-old scaffolder, had interim suppression until today when it lapsed at his appearance before Justice Gerald Nation in the High Court at Christchurch.
Defence counsel Anselm Williams said he accepted that there were no grounds to continue the order, but an affidavit had been filed for Stewart which sought that there be no publication of his photograph on safety grounds.
The affidavit detailed the assault, Mr Williams said. “He was walking through the area where he is living and a person came up to him on the footpath and assaulted him.”
Justice Nation discontinued the suppression order on his name, but granted an order suppressing any publication of photographs of Stewart until his next appearance which is set for February 22. The order will be reviewed on that date.
“Things may have calmed down by February 22,” said Mr Williams.
Five people came to the hearing wearing t-shirts reading “RIP Alexia”. They sat quietly through the hearing but several of them were weeping, and Stewart was also crying as he stood in the dock.
Justice Nation said the court had to follow through with the process that was required in tragic cases like this one.
“People have to try to exercise the calmness that the whole process requires,” he said.
“I appreciate, for those people in the back of the court, how difficult this is, but it is important that everyone respects the process. That is part of the way you respect the person who has died.
“I ask all of those in court to do that and not make the situation any worse for any for yourselves.”
Stewart faces a charge of causing the death of Miss Noble-Hazelwood by the unlawful act of dangerous driving.
He is also charged that having been involved in an accident where a person was killed, he failed without reasonable excuse to stop and ascertain whether anyone had been injured.
He is also charged with reckless driving causing injury to three other people – passengers in the car that allegedly crashed through a fence and into a tree and a building at the entrance to Christchurch East School on Gloucester St, Christchurch, about 11.15pm on Friday November 16.
The three injured are named as Tristan Le Comte, Zachery Noble-Hazelwood, and Angel Livingstone.
Another charge alleges he failed to remain stopped for a police officer to get his particulars.
At his first appearance in the District Court, the judge remanded him on bail to live at particular address where he will have a night time curfew, not to contact the three people alleged to have been injured, and not to consume alcohol or illicit drugs. Justice Nation today added a bail condition that he is not allowed to drive.
Twelve new charges alleging race fixing – including the drugging of a horse – and drug transactions have been laid against people involved in the police’s Operation Inca investigation into the harness racing scene.
One North Canterbury man in his 50s, a driver, appeared at the Christchurch District Court today for the first time as part of the expanding investigation.
He faced one race fixing charge, alleging that a substance was administered to a horse to gain an advantage – the winning stake at a race meeting earlier this year. He is charged with conspiring with one of the other defendants to fix the race.
His court appearance at a review session before Judge Raoul Neave brings the total number of people caught up in the investigation to 13.
The latest charges are against nine people. Four charges allege drug transactions and eight allege race fixing. At least one of the new charges of race fixing was laid as an alternative to an earlier charge, defence counsel James Rapley told the court today.
Some cases are remanded without plea but many now have pleas of not guilty and elections of trial by jury. The cases going to trial are remanded to March 25 for a case review hearing.
A swathe of suppression orders covers eight of the names of those involved, the nature of some charges, and the summaries of facts relating to the race fixing charges.
For four of those involved, name suppression was refused in the District Court, but it has been appealed to the High Court. That appeal hearing was due to be heard next week, but it has now been delayed to February 7.
The cases were called today to progress some of them through to a hearing on January 29, and then most are also arranged to carry on to the case review hearing – the next step in the trial process.
The man who has been newly charged was remanded to March 25 on one race-fixing charge and granted interim suppression until that date, when the issue will be argued if it is to be continued.
One man who was charged in the North Island, Brent Stephen Wall, 47,was remanded straight to the March 25 date when the case was transferred and he did not appear at court in Christchurch for today’s session. He faces a race fixing charge.
Defence counsel Phil Shamy, appearing for Elie Georges Sawma, 42, a Christchurch hairdresser, said his client was not actually part of the Operation Inca investigation, but pre-trial arguments would cover the same issues as other defendants. His case on charges of supplying ecstasy and cocaine has been dealt with at the Operation Inca hearings so far, and he is again remanded to the same case review session in March.
Graham Henry Beirne, 71, of Fendalton, now appears on three race fixing charges, including a fresh charge laid today. He had originally signalled a suppression appeal to the High Court but it did not go ahead, and the order lapsed in October. He is remanded to the case review.
Nigel Raymond McGrath, a 44-year-old horse trainer, of Rolleston, appears on one race fixing charge. He is remanded to the case review.
Andrew Douglas Stuart, 42, or Loburn, now appears on five race fixing charges after two more charges were laid today. He has pleaded not guilty, elected jury trial and all charges have been remanded to the case review hearing in March.
A judge has ruled out a reduction for “cultural factors” in sentencing gang members for a four-on-one stabbing attack in Christchurch Men’s Prison.
Christchurch District Court Judge Gary MacAskill said he set aside the Cultural Reports prepared before the sentencing “after considerable thought”.
He said offenders who had significant records of violence, who then carried out further violence against staff or other inmates while in prison, “are entitled to little or no credit for personal mitigating factors”.
Cultural reports can be ordered under Section 27 of the Sentencing Act 2002, which allows an offender to ask that the court be told of their family, whanāu, community and cultural background before sentencing.
The combined sentencing added a total of seven years eight months in extra prison time, either as cumulative sentences for inmates already serving time, or fresh sentences where the offenders’ existing sentences had expired.
Judge Gary MacAskill ordered the sentencing to be carried out one-by-one because of security concerns about behaviour by others at the court house in recent times. Two men rushed the dock in another gang appearance two weeks ago.
But the latest gang sentencing went ahead without any disruptions from the dock, or the public gallery. Plenty of Corrections staff, police court escort, and Court Safety Officers were on hand.
The four inmates were due to go on trial in July charged with wounding the man with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, but the trial never started. Instead, Sonny Clarke, 28, Michael Paul Thompson, 36, Dwayne Kararema Tutengaehe, 23, and Resham Toa Blake-Faatafa, 22, all admitted the reduced charge of assault with a weapon.
The Crown said the four were all in the Matai North exercise yard while the assault victim was helping Corrections staff to hand out packs of sandwiches to prisoners, through the bars to the exercise yard.
At 11.03am, Blake-Faatafa ran towards the yard’s security camera, jumped up and covered over the lens with a handful of wet toilet paper. This was 50 seconds before the attack began.
Thompson then grabbed the victim through the steel bars of the exercise yard. He held his left wrist and pulled him against the gate, where he could not get free.
Clarke and Tutengaehe then came up and stabbed the victim through the gate, using pieces of wire as weapons. They stabbed him repeatedly in the face, head, throat, chest, and hand.
The victim was eventually pulled free by a Corrections officer.
The victim received three puncture wounds to his face around his left eye and forehead, five puncture injuries to the back of his head, and one on the left side of his throat near his voice box.
He also received one puncture wound to the left side of his chest and one to the back of his right hand.
He needed three stitches when he was treated by the nurse at the prison.
Eighteen months was added to the nine-year five-month sentence that Blake-Faatafa is already serving. The court was told of his abusive family background. He eventually joined the Cripps gang which he saw as “more family than my real family”.
Defence counsel Bridget Ayrey argued that his involvement was only in obscuring the camera and he had never touched the weapons, but Judge MacAskill said his role had made the attack more likely and enabled the offenders to act more freely.
Clarke was also sentenced for a second prison assault involving a two-person attack on another inmate in an exercise yard. Defence counsel Paul McMenamin said Clarke had support from family, but needed rehabilitation. “Since he was a boy, he’s had no chance, really, so far,” Mr McMenamin said.
Judge McAskill noted he had 62 previous convictions, including violence. He had a difficult family background, involving gang activity and violence before going into many placements in State care. He was entrenched in gang life. His cultural report said he had been failed by his whanau and the State.
The judge jailed him for two years, and imposed release conditions for six months to follow that sentence for a psychological assessment, and to undertake counselling and programmes to deal with issues of alcohol, violence, and cultural matters.
Thompson – whose existing sentence for aggravated robbery expired in March – was jailed for
18 months with six months of special release conditions for counselling and programmes. He had a history of violence, dishonesty, and failure to comply with court orders, the judge noted. He grew up in a dangerous gang environment, but regarded himself as “better off” than children who grew up in State care. He had spent 13 years of his life in prison.
Tutengaehe was sentenced for a total of three prison assaults, one of which had a staff member as the victim. Defence counsel April Kelland said Tutengaehe had effectively been on remand on these charges since November 2016. He had been in prison since he was 17.
Judge MacAskill said Tutengaehe had been involved in crime since the age of nine, and had been entrenched in the Cripps gang since he was 14. The judge imposed a series of sentences totalling two years four months.
A misdiagnosis and a change of medication led a woman to set fire to a rented flat while she was inside, after a mental health episode.
The fire caused major damage to an inner city Christchurch flat, and caused some damage to the property next door.
The woman, now aged 57, was repeatedly seeking medical help for her deteriorating condition at the time of the incident in May 2017.
“Unfortunately, for various reasons that didn’t occur, and you ended up setting this fire,” said Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish as she faced the decision on where to place the woman.
She decided to grant name suppression because the woman had earlier been found not guilty of the arson because of insanity.
She had never been in trouble before, and had lived with her mental illness for 30 years. It was because her illness was effectively untreated because of the medication change that she came into contact with the criminal justice system for the first time.
Defence counsel Andrew McKenzie noted the clear change in the woman since her previous appearances. “She’s got some hope for her future,” he told Judge Farish. The woman even had enrolment forms to further her education.
Judge Farish recalled that the woman had been “very distressed and obviously not very well” the last time she appeared. “I see you have had a bit of a rough run with your medication,” said the judge.
Because the woman was found not guilty by reason of insanity, no reparation orders can be made. The insurer will be left with the cost of the fire in the Barbadoes Street flat, and the judge could not make an order for $600 damage for the neighbouring property.
However, Mr McKenzie said the woman wanted to do something to make up for what she did and she might eventually be able to make a donation to the neighbour.
The judge assured her that the neighbour was not angry with her, but was just out of pocket.
Judge Farish said she had to decide whether the woman should be committed as a special patient, or simply as a patient under the Mental Health Act which would give the doctors more options in transitioning her back into the community.
The woman had been held at the Christchurch Women’s Prison for a long time and then at a mental health unit.
But she was now seen as a low risk of behaving in that way again. She had no drug or alcohol issues and she had positive supports within the community. She had good insight into her illness and was known to seek help when she became unwell.
She was now stable on her medication, and was seen as a low risk of causing harm to herself or others.
Judge Farish opted for the less restrictive placement which would enable doctors to work towards placing her back into the community, with support.
“But this time, hopefully nobody will change your medication,” she said.
Max the 14-year-old poodle had no teeth and was mostly blind and deaf when two pig dogs tore into him in the street at Leithfield, North Canterbury.
The poodle died on the way to the vet after the dog attack that was described as “terrifying and ghastly” by the woman who tried to save Max, Deborah Joynson Danielsson.
She tried to lift Max up out of reach after the attack began but two of the pig dogs, Captain and Kahu, dragged him back and inflicted fatal injuries.
Max’s owner, Barry Rolton, said his elderly dog had been still very lively and loved to go on walks. He had left it in a friend’s care during a holiday and the dog had died in that friend’s arms.
He said at the sentencing of the owner of the pig dogs: “Max was a fun-loving character who made his way into the hearts of everybody who came to know him.”
The owner of the pig dogs was Erin Kate Graham, a 30-year-old mother, of Leithfield, who had admitted charges of owning dogs which attacked the woman and the poodle in the incident on October 24, 2017.
Graham had the two dogs that attacked destroyed after the incident and now she has been ordered to pay $5047 in fines, emotional harm reparations, reparations for loss and damage, solicitor’s fees for the Hurunui District Council, and court costs.
Some of that money will pay for the rescue dog, a collie-greyhound cross named Bruce, that Mr Rolton has bought to replace Max.
He said after the sentencing that he felt “a little bit sorry” for Graham. “This is one of those unfortunate things, but it should not have happened.”
Ms Joynson Danielsson said: “I do empathise, but the purpose of today was to make it clear that you do have to take precautions, especially when you have so many animals.” She said she still did not feel safe around Leithfield.
Counsel for the Hurunui District Council, Shaun Brookes, said there had been two incidents of uncontrolled pig dogs attacking in the Leithfield area in the last two years. Graham and her dogs were not involved in the other attack, but she had been warned twice to keep her dogs under control before the attack that killed Max.
The dogs involved were a labrador-greyhound-mastiff cross named Captain, which was unregistered, and a labrador-greyhound-boxer cross named Kahu.
Graham let four pig-hunting dogs out of their dog box about 7.45am and went inside the house to attend her infant daughter. There was no fencing on the property and the dogs went out onto Terrace Road, while not under any control.
Three of the dogs went up to Ms Joynson Danielsson who was walking a friend’s poodle, Max, who was on a lead.
They surrounded the woman and Max and Captain and Kahu attacked the poodle, biting him and pulling him between them.
The woman lifted Max from the ground and Captain and Kahu jumped on her, causing minor injuries before members of the public – including Graham – arrived to help her and Max.
Max received multiple serious wounds, including a large tear to the left abdomen exposing the muscles, bites and tears to the lumbar muscles, bites and a skin tear to the throat, broken ribs, and chest trauma.
The woman received scratches to her shoulders, back, and buttocks, and a strained neck and back.
Defence counsel Shannon-Leigh Litt handed up letters of apology from Graham, to Mr Rolton and Ms Joynson Danielsson, which were given to them after the hearing.
Graham acknowledged it had been a horrific experience. At the time, she had been going through a separation from her husband. She had requested that her husband build a fence to keep the dogs in, but it had not yet been done.
Judge Paul Kellar said he had heard “moving” victim impact statements at the hearing. The attack had led to the death of beloved dog who was quite defenceless.
There was an obligation on dog owners to ensure that their animals did not endanger, injure, or cause distress to other animals, or to people, he said.
He noted that Graham had no previous convictions, and that she had intervened and called off the dogs, and had two of them destroyed. He also noted her apology letters.
A woman spoke of her feelings of “toxic shame” after being sexually abused as a 16-year-old, before seeing her abuser jailed for six years.
The sentencing of 62-year-old Adrian Raymond Hogben was complicated because of earlier offending and jail sentences, and a 1999 warning about an open-ended preventive detention sentence if he offended again.
In fact, Hogben has not offended again having served a seven-year jail term for a sexual assault on a 15-year-old and then serving eight years released under an extended supervision order.
Because he had been out of prison since 2005, without offending, Crown prosecutor Karyn South did not seek preventive detention at his latest sentencing before Justice Gerald Nation in the High Court at Christchurch.
However, he still denies offending against the 16-year-old in the late 1990s and Justice Nation said he had “a high degree of hostility” towards her.
He denied the charges at a judge-alone trial in November but was found guilty of 10 charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, and rape. Justice Nation said some of the offending had involved “premeditation and cunning”, in plying the girl with alcohol and then sexually assaulting her during a trip to Kaikoura.
Other assaults involved her being struck, having a knife held to her, or facing threats to harm her family.
She read her victim impact statement, detailing the descent of her life from the time of the abuse by Hogben. She spoke of the “toxic shock and dirty feelings I had inside” after the abuse which had changed her life forever.
A few months later she began using alcohol and cannabis at a time when she was depressed and lonely. She took up work as a stripper, and then a prostitute, and within a few years was using methamphetamine.
Justice Nation noted that she had had a difficult life, and made choices that got her into bad situations. She has served prison time herself.
“It is easy to accept that low self-esteem as a result of what you did to her has been a major factor in the poor decisions she has made,” the judge told Hogben. “I trust that with the work she is doing, she will be able to move on from being a victim of what occurred, and realise her potential.”
Hogben now has sexual attacks on four girls or young women on his record, including the rape of a 15-year-old he picked up in the street in Christchurch in 1999.
Defence counsel Michael Starling suggested how the judge should approach the sentencing exercise because the latest convictions pre-date his sentencing in 1999.
Justice Nation considered how much additional time would have been imposed if Hogben had been sentenced on all charges together at that time, and decided to impose a six year term.
With Hogben still denying the offending at trial, and in his pre-sentence interview, and the Crown pointing to him having no sense of accountability or victim empathy, he is likely to have to serve all the sentence.
A King Cobras gang member told police he rushed the dock when Daniel Gary French admitted firearms charges because “he killed my bro”.
Another gang member was in the public seating at the Christchurch District Court today when Marcus Moagutuuli appeared by video-link from the prison, and gave a “C” sign using his fingers – presumably for Cobras.
Moagutuuli, 26, admitted charges of assaulting French and resisting a policeman in the fracas in the main district court on November 15.
French’s arrest on firearms charges was associated with the fatal shooting of King Cobra gang member Luke Sears, also known as Luke Riddell, 28, near Charing Cross on October 13. Another man, who has name suppression, has been charged with his murder.
During the police inquiry, shotguns and cartridges were found in two vehicles and French later admitted unlawful possess of them, cultivating cannabis, theft, and selling cannabis. French was driving a vehicle on Grange Road where the shooting occurred, on the day of Sears’ killing.
When he appeared in court and pleaded guilty, three men rushed forward from the public seating and two of them struggled with police while the third lay on the floor.
Judge Paul Kellar said Moagutuuli was an active member of the King Cobras. He leapt over the desks occupied by lawyers and launched himself at the dock where French was standing.
He landed on the barrier at the side of the dock and tried to strike French before being tackled by police staff. Several officers were needed to get him under control.
“The object of your attention didn’t receive any injuries,” said Judge Kellar, who was told that the presiding judge on that day, Judge David Saunders, sentenced Moagutuuli to three months’ jail on the spot for contempt of court.
After his arrest, Moagutuuli told police he acted in the way he did because “he killed my bro”.
After submissions by defence counsel Craig Ruane suggesting a conviction and discharge, Judge Kellar said he was mindful that the other judge had already sentenced Moagutuuli.
“This is serious conduct,” he said. “There is no place for it in a courtroom.”
He jailed Moagutuuli for three months, which will run alongside his current term.
French, 35, has been remanded for sentencing on January 30, and the man charged with murder is remanded in custody to appear in the High Court on February 5.
Shiu Prasad says he planned to commit suicide in front the wife who had left him, but the situation “escalated” when he saw her with her new boyfriend.
The 52-year-old’s various explanations of his intentions in the violent outburst that left his wife stabbed to death and her new boyfriend badly wounded were described at his sentencing in the High Court at Christchurch.
Before imposing a jail term of life with a non-parole term of 13 years, Justice Gerald Nation, told him: “Your actions were criminal, selfish, and intensely destructive in the most serious of ways.”
The judge said: “I understand how upsetting it was obviously for you, finding out that your marriage had broken down, but you are not here because you were upset at the end of your marriage. You are here, and other people have suffered, because of the way you chose to deal with that upset and the actions you took.”
The Crown called for a long non-parole term, because the murder had been committed with “a high degree of brutality and callousness”.
Justice Nation reassured those at the scene that they had done all they could.
He told Prasad: “In contrast (to your actions) stand the acts of those people who saw what was happening on the street and in the heat of the moment did not pass by, but stopped, went to help your wife, and did their best to intervene in a situation that must have been frightening for them.”
In November, Prasad admitted the murder of 28-year-old rest home worker Keshni Naicker and also admitted wounding Miss Naicker’s new partner, Asveen Sharan, with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The brutal attack – a surprise stab in the back and then multiple wounds from a large kitchen knife – was committed as Miss Naicker left a rest home in Ilam Road where she had just finished working a shift.
The attack happened on September 15, a week after the couple had an argument and Miss Naicker moved out of their home in Christchurch. She told Prasad next day that she no longer wanted to be in a relationship with him. They had been married for less than five years.
Sharan, a 31-year-old meat process worker, said the couple had been together for just one week before “that awful night”. He said she was “the love of my life”.
In his victim impact statement read to the court, he said: “I would feel very complete in my life, I had everything.” The wounds had healed the the scars would be a reminder.
Miss Naicker’s mother, who still lived in Fiji, said she and her only daughter had been very close and her whole family was very shocked. She said her daughter had a right to be happy. She was worried about what would happen when Prasad was eventually released.
Another family member said Miss Naicker’s mother had cried almost every day since the murder.
A 29-year-old student told of the injured Naicker trying to get away by getting into her car as she drove by, but the door was locked and she could not unlock it fast enough. Miss Naicker was screaming “Help me” and ended up on her back 80m away where she was stabbed to death.
The student told the court: “I don’t sleep. I struggle to sleep.”
Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh said the killing was motivated by obsession and possessiveness. Prasad had been saying the preceding days that he still loved her, and threatening suicide. He said in his police interview that he had decided, “If she is not mine, I don’t want her to be with anyone.”
Defence counsel Andrew McCormick said Prasad had been distraught and devastated by his wife’s decision to leave him. He said: “He’s a heartbroken and broken man. He understands the harm he has caused. He is reeling as a result of his own behaviour. He is a very ordinary man who has behaved in an extraordinarily bad way following his wife’s decision to leave him.”
Before the killing, he had bought weed killer intending to kill himself but decided against it after talking with the human resources manager at his workplace, Mr McCormick explained.
After the stabbing, Prasad had stabbed himself in the stomach four times, intending to die with her.
Miss Naicker died in the ambulance while being treated by St John paramedics.
Sharan was taken to hospital with five serious stab wounds which needed stitches, and grazes to his knees and knuckles.
Miss Naicker received six substantial stab wounds. Two struck critical organs, causing internal bleeding which caused her death. She also had wounds to her arm, lower abdomen, the side of her mouth, and hand.
Prasad said he was so angry his “mind was not right”. He said it was “hard to say” if he wanted Miss Naicker to die. He acknowledged making “the biggest mistake of my life”.
Justice Nation rejected Mr McCormick’s submission that Prasad had wanted to harm his wife but not kill her, and it was a “reckless murder”. He had lain in wait for the victim, with a weapon, and had chased her and continued the attack when she ran away.
He decided that the killing did not show the same degree of callousness and brutality as other cases cited. He noted that Prasad had stabbed himself and tried to die beside his wife at the scene of the attack.
He allowed a reduced sentence for Prasad’s early guilty plea and imposed a non-parole term of 13 years as part of the life term.
Two fathers of young children have been jailed for their “inexplicable” shop robberies.
“Both young men are capable of so much more,” said Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish. “They are so much more capable than being ‘just another young Maori offender’.”
Tainui Smith, 23, the Aranui father of two children, who had his partner supporting him at his sentencing, was jailed for three years one month for the February 8 robbery of the Beachcomber Dairy, in New Brighton Road.
Jayden Peta Brown, 24, the father of a young son, was jailed for four years one month for that robbery, and an earlier robbery of a St Albans liquor shop, as well as driving with excess breath-alcohol, and driving while his licence was suspended. He was also disqualified from driving for six months.
Neither have any previous offences, and were remorseful for their robberies. Judge Farish described their behaviour as inexplicable.
Defence counsel Kiran Paima said Smith “feels he has messed up his life”. He spoke of the “desensitisation” of young people exposed to videos and computer games. Smith was a family man, who had accepted his responsibility for the offending quickly. The robbery decision had been made under the influence of alcohol, but that was not offered as an excuse.
Andrew McCormick, defence counsel for Brown, said his client acknowledged the harm he had caused and wanted him to apologise to the victims. At the time he had been short of money, and his life had been disrupted by being separated from his partner.
Judge Farish noted that a cultural report had been prepared for Brown ahead of the sentencing. It spoke of his disadvantaged upbringing, characterised by instability. It made it clear that he now needed to reconnect with his whanau and his heritage, because he had become isolated.
He wanted to study for an accountancy qualification and that might now be possible during his prison sentence.
Brown had used an imitation pistol in his liquor store robbery, by himself, on January 15. He took about $500 in cash.
Smith had a pistol that he used “for shooting birds” when the pair went to the dairy. The dairy owner and her elderly mother saw them enter on security camera and were going out the back door when Smith pointed the weapon at them.
Judge Farish said the women not only felt they had been robbed of money and cigarettes – more than $2000 worth of uninsured loss which the robbers won’t be able to repay – but they felt they had been robbed of their feeling of security and wellbeing.
Family supporters for both men were present in court for their sentencing.
A week after a new law about strangulation came into force, two cases are already before the Christchurch Courts.
The offence was set up after Parliament passed the Family Violence Amendment Act, establishing an offence under the Crimes Act, which carries a seven-year maximum jail term penalty.
There was previously no separate offence for strangulation but it was treated as an assault, or an aggravating feature on an assault charge.
The new law came into effect on December 3, and the first prosecution nationally appeared that day with a 21-year-old Counties Manukau man being charged in the Auckland District Court.
The first case in Christchurch appeared in court on Friday when a 31-year-old man, Shadon John Woodstock, was remanded in custody over the weekend for a lawyer to be assigned and prepare a bail application.
He was charged with threatening to kill a woman, and “intentionally impeding her normal breathing by applying pressure to her throat and neck”. He has entered no pleas.
Assigned lawyer Karen Chalmers put forward the bail application for the Waltham man, but the case had to be called before Judge Paul Kellar four times while checks were made on a proposed bail address and the views of the occupants and the alleged victim.
Woodstock, a fisheries worker, indicated he planned to defend the charges though he has not yet formally entered pleas.
Police opposed bail, and Judge Kellar heard submissions and then decided he must remain in custody and remanded him for another appearance on December 21.
The police alleged that offending took place on Friday, but in the meantime, a Darfield man, aged 28, Benjamin James Guthrie Breading, was charged with assaulting a woman in November and also strangulation under the new law on Saturday.
Police did not oppose the Breading’s release and Judge Kellar remanded him on bail to appear again on January 15. He did not enter pleas. He will be allowed to live at Darfield but has been ordered to stay at an address away from the woman he allegedly assaulted.
Three police-issue tasers went missing during transport and ended up under the bed of a small scale Christchurch drugs dealer.
The police said the weapons went missing between May and October while being transported. They have accepted that although the tasers each had two cartridges in their case, they were non-operational.
The 22-year-old Riccarton householder, Jack Anaru Waitoa, a roofer, today admitted the charge of unlawful possession of the restricted weapons.
At his appearance in the Christchurch District Court before Judge Joanne Maze, Waitoa also admitted charges of possession of cannabis for supply, possession of one ecstasy pill, and a pipe for smoking cannabis.
The police said they searched the property because of a cannabis smell, and found 22.65g of the drug, the pipe, and the pill. They also found scales, and resealable plastic bags. Waitoa admitted that he sold cannabis to six or seven friends to fund his own use of the drug.
They found the three X2 police tasers in a case under Waitoa’s bed.
He explained that an associate had come to the flat with the tasers and he thought it best to take them off him because he was “unstable and did not know what he was going to do with them”.
Waitoa then foolishly put them under the bed and left them for months and never gave them a thought, instead of handing them to the police. They were non-operational because their battery packs did not work.
Judge Maze said Waitoa had been frank about his drug use, and had now arranged for his own counselling through the City Mission. She took into account his explanation that he had no intention of using the tasers. They were not linked to his drug offending, and he had no previous convictions under the Misuse of Drugs Act or the Arms Act. It was unlikely he would be back before the courts.
She imposed 100 hours of community work, and six months of supervision during which he will have to complete drug and alcohol counselling, or any other course required. She ordered destruction or forfeiture of the drugs and equipment.
A little more freedom will be allowed to a teenager who once plotted a terrorist-style attack in Christchurch, as he works through his two-year supervision sentence.
The teen has been allowed some closely monitored outings so far, including playing his first game of golf, but his supervisors have asked for the condition to be relaxed further.
The teen, who has name suppression, is being regularly monitored by Christchurch District Court Judge Stephen O’Driscoll since his sentencing in February.
Fifteen people involved in his supervision, counselling, and life in supported accommodation in Christchurch have had a meeting about his progress.
They asked Judge O’Driscoll to change the wording of the supervision conditions at a judicial monitoring session today.
“It will enable us to test the waters and give him an opportunity to have some level of independence,” a supervisor explained to the judge. “That will obviously be very controlled.”
Judge O’Driscoll granted the change so that the teen can be away from his approved address as long as he has written approval and is accompanied by a person approved by his probation officer. He would have been accompanied by officials on all outings so far.
Judge O’Driscoll told him: “You are being given a bit more independence. There will be a greater emphasis on trusting you to do things properly.”
The session was told the teen now had 24 credits towards his level 1 NCEA, after gaining 12 more in recent weeks. He needs 80 credits to progress to level 2, but his tutor is talking about getting him started on some level two papers soon.
The teenager is also talking about having a barbecue this summer at the supported accommodation where he lives, and inviting the judge and Crown. Judge O’Driscoll said he would consider that invitation at the next judicial monitoring session on January 16 – but only if the teenager gets a good report on his progress.
In 2017, the youth was radicalised online and planned a terrorist attack in Christchurch “for Allah”. He planned to ram a car into a group of people and then stab them until the police killed him. He went through with a threatening and violent incident but “decided not to hurt anybody because he did not have the means to kill enough people”, the Crown said when he pleaded guilty.
Since he received his two-year supervision sentence in February, he has been living in supported accommodation, going to counselling at a mosque, and doing school work by correspondence.
Judge O’Driscoll was told today that the teenager had decided that he did not want to return to live with his mother over Christmas because he believed it would place him in a high risk situation. The judge said that decision showed “a degree of maturity”.
Violence and alcohol had become a way of life for the 24-year-old woman who has now begun a life sentence for the Christmas Day murder of her partner with a stab to the heart.
The woman, Franchesca Kororia Borell, had never appeared in court before she stabbed 26-year-old Hardeep Singh on December 25, 2016.
But at her sentencing in the High Court at Christchurch, Justice Cameron Mander said Borell had acknowledged a history of abusing alcohol and a tendency to resort to violence, after suffering domestic abuse from a previous partner.
“This is why you resort to violence at times of stress in your personal relationships,” he said, noting that she was assessed as being a high risk to others in an intimate relationship where alcohol and cannabis were present.
Justice Mander said: “Despite your lack of prior offending, violence and alcohol had become a way of life for you.”
At her trial in October, Borell admitted manslaughter but denied the murder charge, claiming that she had thrown the kitchen knife at Mr Singh after an argument, and had not intended to kill him.
The Crown continued with the trial, with prosecutor Barnaby Hawes saying it was most likely she had stabbed him rather than thrown the knife and her actions amounted to murder. The jury returned a rapid guilty verdict.
Borell is the mother of a young daughter who is being cared for by her grandmother.
The family of the victim said in a joint statement, read out in court by a victim adviser, that they were “left with a life sentence of loss”.
They said Hardeep Singh had been studying and working to support his parents in India and their lives had changed forever with his death. They had felt helpless being so far away.
Mr Singh had worked and studied hard to get many academic and professional qualifications in India and had furthered his studies in New Zealand. He was a much loved member of the family.
Defence counsel Phil Shamy urged that the lowest level of non-parole term – 10 years – be imposed as part of the life sentence. There was no basis to say Borell lacked remorse, and she had asked him to express her apologies to the family of the victim.
“She has made a significant and unfortunately lethal error which she will pay for, for the rest of her life,” Mr Shamy said.
Justice Mander said the murder had been devastating for the victim’s family and the sentencing would not ease that pain.
He said Borell and Mr Singh had been in a relationship for several months and were living at a Cashmere address where they were house-sitting.
They argued on Christmas day. She said she was leaving him, but when he prevented her from leaving by blocking her way she became very angry. She picked up a large kitchen knife. She claimed to have thrown it, but the judge said he considered that was unlikely.
He considered she had used the knife to inflict a single stab wound to the chest which caused considerable internal bleeding. Borell rang emergency services in a distressed state – the recording was played at the trial – and tried to help Mr Singh but he died in hospital two days later.
Borell later said that she had been sad and depressed about not having her daughter with her. She had resorted to drinking alcohol on Christmas morning and had argued with Mr Singh throughout the day.
The judge decided to impose a 10-year non-parole term as part of the life sentence, but he said Borell would not be released until the Parole Board decided her behaviour warranted it.
He told her: “Alcohol, and now a manifest propensity to resort to violence a times of stress, present significant hurdles for you to overcome.”
He urged her to engage in cultural programmes, and address her alcohol and drug issues during her sentence, or she would serve longer than the non-parole term imposed.
Rapper and hip-hop artist Scribe will join in the war against methamphetamine – even while he faces sentencing on a charge of possessing the class A drug.
The 39-year-old – real name Malo Ioane Luafutu – was put on supervision in the Christchurch District Court today after admitting breaching a protection order, and wilful damage of a Housing New Zealand property.
But he still faces sentencing on April 16 by another judge, after being found guilty of possession of methamphetamine at an earlier trial. He will apply for a discharge without conviction on that charge.
Defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger told Judge Tom Gilbert today: “Mr Luafutu’s drug issues have been widely publicised. He himself thinks there is something for him to contribute in the war against methamphetamine.
“He has resolved to take part in a documentary which will do just that.”
The judge said: “It seems pretty clear that in the couple of years preceding these charges, things went badly for you because of drug use. A lot of people who do well in life come unstuck, particularly when they get involved in methamphetamine.”
After placing him on supervision for six months – during which he must do any courses or counselling as probation directs – and ordering the $689 reparation for the damage, Judge Gilbert said: “I hope that in the next wee while we can see you doing what you are really good at.”
Luafutu’s judge-alone trial concerned two incidents where breaches of protection orders were alleged.
Judge Gilbert dismissed the charges of breaching an order and assault with intent to injure relating to the first incident, and then Luafutu admitted breaches involving entering a property and physical violence relating to the second incident. Judge Gilbert said low level violence was involved.
He said Luafutu had been remanded in custody in August for more than two months, because his performance on bail had been appalling – “probably as a result of your ongoing involvement in drugs”. He had also spent time on electronically monitored bail.
Judge Gilbert said: “You look a lot better than when I put you in prison a few months ago.”
Luafutu replied from the dock: “I want to thank you for that.”
“Not many people thank me for putting them in prison,” said the judge. He said Luafutu had spent enough time in custody and on electronic bail.
“You now need to focus on looking forward, for you and your whanau,” he said.
A peacekeeper who witnessed the aftermath of the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian War and then worked as a prison officer, has now been jailed for 12 years for child sex abuse.
Christchurch District Court Judge Paul Kellar imposed a six-year non-parole term as part of Jeremy Rhys Lyon’s sentence, and praised the courage of both victims who gave evidence against him.
Both girls were aged between 5 and 12 when the abuse occurred.
One of the complainants, now aged in her 20s, read out her victim impact statement at the sentencing, and the mother of the other girl spoke saying that Lyons had taken away her daughter’s life as a normal little girl.
Her daughter had been outgoing and confident, but was now reserved, isolated, and prone to angry outbursts as a result of the incident of sexual abuse.
The other victim told of being diagnosed with traumainduced anxiety and being heavily depressed.
Lyons, 44, of Christchurch, had denied the offending but was found guilty of multiple charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and doing an indecent act on a girl aged under 12, at the end of a jury trial in May. Since then he has been in custody, and a psychological report has been prepared.
Lyons said he had no recollection of committing the offences and believed that it didn’t occur. After the trial, he accepted that there was a small possibility that it did occur and had expressed his apologies to the victims for the suffering they had endured.
Judge Kellar said he had no previous convictions, and had been well regarded.
He noted that Lyons had been a peacekeeper who had witnessed the aftermath of the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian War in 1995. He had seen the evacuation of women and children. The massacre involved the killing of about 8000 people, mainly men and boys, by units of the Bosnian Serb Army.
He had then worked as a prison officer, and the psychological report indicated there had been a motorcycle accident in 2014, and there was an indication of scarring on the brain from an earlier injury.
The judge said that the most significant factor in the sentencing was the degree of harm to the victims. He told Lyons: “Make no mistake about it, this offending is about as serious as it gets.”
Three police-issue tasers went missing during transport and ended up under the bed of a small scale Christchurch drugs dealer.