File image. © Andrew Bardwell

A man who broke into a woman’s home and placed items of torture on a coffee table while waiting for her to arrive, was sentenced to 10 years’ prison, with a non-parole period of five years.

Munesh Kumar, a 40-year-old chef, entered the woman’s house on October 5, 2015, and placed an iron, hot water jug, hammer, screw driver, tool box, and nails on the coffee table in the lounge.

He had gloves on and hid in the bedroom of her Christchurch home, and when she went in there he grabbed her by her hair and dragged her into the lounge.

Over the next two and a half hours she was assaulted and humiliated, starting with slaps to her face.

Kumar repeatedly struck her with a claw hammer in the back and legs, and once on top of her head.

He used the screwdriver to stab her in the left wrist and right knee, then cut off some of her hair.

She was kicked twice in the face, and punched on the side of her head.

He picked up two nails and the hammer and threatened to “nail” her, then began to strangle her with an extension cord. When he released her he threatened to pour boiling water over her and pull her teeth with pliers.

Kumar forced her to remove her blood-stained clothes and have a shower, and he cleaned and vacuumed the house.

Another woman came to the house but could not get in. She heard the victim crying and Kumar’s voice, and phoned the police.

The victim was taken to hospital with two fractures to her spine, a fracture to her lumbar bone, seven wounds on her left leg, two wounds on her right leg, and nine wounds on her back from the hammer, a 5cm cut to her head which was glued, and the screwdriver wounds were stitched. She had significant facial injuries, two black eyes, and a swollen nose.

Charges against Kumar included aggravated burglary, intentionally causing grievous bodily harm, threatening to kill, assault with a weapon, assaulting a woman, and intimidation. He had pleaded guilty.

Christchurch District Court Judge Paul Kellar suppressed the publication of the name of the victim, and read Kumar the first of the three strike warnings for violent offenders.

He said the unprovoked attack was prolonged, painful, and extremely frightening, and the victim now suffered long term emotional effects.

He said it was premeditated offending, and Kumar had planned for her to suffer a prolonged torture.

The attacks to her head carried the potential for life threatening injuries, he said, and it was a home invasion where Kumar had detained her for a number of hours.

He said Kumar’s ingrained views from his upbringing led to this offending, and sentenced him to 10 years’ prison with a minimum non-parole period of 5 years.

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Three men arrested for alleged involvement in a methamphetamine supply ring have been remanded in custody at the Christchurch District Court.

Michael Heron, a 44-year-old concrete worker with no fixed abode, Riki William Wellington, a 26-year-old builder from Hei Hei, and Luke Samuel Mathers, a 23-year-old security officer from New Brighton were all charged with possession of methamphetamine for supply, and possession of a psychoactive substance for supply.

Heron and Wellington were also charged with unlawful possession of a pistol.

Mathers applied for bail, but the police supplied a written opposition to it, and Judge Brian Callaghan refused the application. Wellington and Heron did not apply for bail and were remanded without plea.

Police said several searches of addresses and vehicles across the city were executed yesterday, and more than 500g of methamphetamine, over $100,000 cash, and a loaded pistol were found, and four cars were seized.

All three men were remanded in custody to a video-link appearance from the Christchurch Men’s Prison on November 24.

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The victim of a gang bashing had earlier been blocked from membership of Black Power because he was “too nice”.

Four Black Power members or associates were jailed for the bashing at the Christchurch District Court today, but all will be out of prison almost straight away.

They all received sentences of two years or just under, and because of the time served on remand almost all will be released without the Parole Board intervening.

The sentencing session before Judge Tom Gilbert was assured by at least one of the four that the victim no longer had anything to fear from them.

The jury trial last month was delayed to find the victim and get him to court and then he had a loss of memory when he gave evidence, being unable to remember any details of the punching and kicking that had broken his cheek bone and caused other injuries.

The Crown then dropped the kidnapping charges against the four, and they pleaded guilty to charges of intentionally injuring the victim. They were remanded in custody for sentence, and most had already spent a long period in custody awaiting the trial.

Defence counsel Margaret Sewell, appearing for Enzed Norman Beazley, 23, said her client had come from a gang culture, but had no previous convictions for violence.

She said he had regarded the bashing victim as being “nice”. When the man had wanted to join Black Power, Beazley would not let him because he was “too nice”, she told Judge Gilbert.

The trial was told that the 10-man attack on the victim in Aranui on July 13, 2015, had not been gang related. It had been carried out over a drug debt.

The victim was dragged out of a house, and into a car. He was bashed and held in a bedroom at another address. When three of the men drove him away from the property, the car was stopped by the police and the victim gave a false name in the hope of being arrested and “rescued” – a ploy that apparently worked.

Phillip Allan, counsel for 22-year-old Jahmystic Raerae, said his client now wanted to “draw a line under the incident” and the victim had nothing to worry about in terms of repercussions.

Counsel for Liam Teau Ariki Strickland, 19, Ruth Buddicom, said her client would apologise by letter to the victim and she would continue with efforts to arrange a restorative justice meeting.

Defence counsel April Kelland said Robert James Beazley, 21, had only a slight criminal history which included one assault.

Judge Gilbert said it had been a “nasty and frightening” attack on the victim, but he now simply wanted to move on. He said he had declined to refer to the case for a restorative justice meeting because of the way the trial had unfolded.

He said the men had been part of a group that had planned an attack, sought out the victim, carried out a home invasion, attacked his head, and caused serious injury. Because of the group attack, it was not possible to pinpoint what each of them had done.

Judge Gilbert jailed the Beazleys and Strickland for two years, and Raerae for 23 months. All will have six months of post detention conditions when they must take part in assessments, courses, counselling or training as directed.

Enzed Beazley had also admitted a breach of release conditions, and Strickland had admitted shoplifting a television. Concurrent jail terms were imposed.

The victim was not at the Court House to see the sentences imposed.

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Ashley Lyle Scarlett drove away with a car while the owner was right beside it and the family dog was in the back.

“It is difficult to imagine a more brazen theft of a vehicle,” said Christchurch District Court Judge Tom Gilbert as he jailed Scarlett for 18 months.

Diego the German Shepherd was released by 26-year-old Scarlett and returned to the family, but the $20,000 Mitsubish Pajero has never been found.

Nor was the laptop containing a doctoral thesis that Scarlett stole from a different car parked in Riccarton Avenue on March 9.

Judge Gilbert told Scarlett: “A doctorate involves a long course of hard work over several years, the result of which is writing a thesis. This student’s thesis was on the laptop you stole and she did not have a back-up.

“She spent the next two months reconstructing the hard work she had put in. The type of work and dedication she showed with that work is probably foreign to you, but (the loss) would have been absolutely devastating for her.”

Scarlett was appearing for sentence after pleading guilty on Monday to charges of unlawfully taking the car, unlawfully getting into a car, two thefts, breach of community work, possession of a psycho-active substance, driving while forbidden, and failing to answer bail.

Defence counsel Lee Lee Heah urged that a home detention sentence be imposed. Scarlett was still a young man and should not be “written off” by the court, because he could be rehabilitated.

Judge Gilbert said he had stolen iPads, laptop, gym gear, cellphone, cash and cards from the cars he raided.

The car Mitsubishi was taken from the forecourt of a service station in Ilam while the owner was momentarily out of the car putting his dog in the back. Scarlett simply hopped in the car, locked the front doors and drove off with the dog in the back.

Diego was found later in Chatswood Place, Bishopdale, after the incident was posted on social media.

Scarlett said he took the car because he “just needed a ride home”.

The judge noted that Scarlett had been on electronically monitored bail but had breached it. His history of non-compliance with sentences and court orders made home detention out of the question.

“What you did wasn’t just to nameless, faceless people, but it was to people who have been severely affected by your actions,” said the judge.

He imposed a series of concurrent jail terms totalling 18 months, and ordered Scarlett to pay reparations of $3830 for the victims’ losses.

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A marriage broker convicted of scamming a Wellington man has been threatened with arrest unless she returns from Australia to face sentencing.

Li Jun Xue, 59, has paid back all of the $35,000 she was convicted of defauding from a man in his 50s who eventually realised the “bride” he was being set up with was already married.

Xue had been a witness at her wedding in Australia. The man was told that a divorce could be arranged if he paid another $10,000.

Xue was due for sentencing in the Christchurch District Court yesterday on the fraud charge after being found guilty at a judge-alone trial in June.

But for the second time, she provided medical information to defence counsel Alister James that she was too ill to travel because of high blood pressure. The sentencing was delayed in September for the same reason.

“How does an end get brought to all this?” Judge Tom Gilbert asked.

He said that even after paying the money back, Xue now faced a reparation bill of $2174 for the civil legal costs the victim paid before the case being a criminal prosecution. She is also likely to have to pay him some reparations for emotional harm.

Judge Gilbert accepted the police proposal that the case be remanded for one final time, for Xue to appear.

The judge said Xue could not be sentenced in her absence. “There is no way of bringing this matter to a conclusion unless she shows up. The court processes are being frustrated. If she doesn’t appear next time, then the inevitable result will have to be a warrant. Then, if she ever returns to New Zealand, the matter will be dealt with.”

Xue lives in Woollongong, south of Sydney. She was allowed to return to Australia on bail after her conviction on the fraud charge, but has apparently not set foot in New Zealand since. She was also threatened with an arrest warrant in September if she did not turn up yesterday.

She returned to Christchurch for earlier court appearances and for the trial.

The Wellington man contacted Xue through a newspaper advertisement in 2013 and eventually paid $35,000 and signed an agreement with Xue indicating it was a downpayment as a gift of marriage to a 54-year-old Singaporean woman named Jessica who he had been introduced to.

He later found out that she was a Malaysian who was already married to an Australian.

Xue’s sentencing is now set for January 25.

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A judge says the explanation from a 35-year-old Manawatu man for raiding $74,262 from the bank account of an 80-year-old rest home resident “lacks reality”.

Christchurch District Court Judge John Strettell said Michael David Bolton’s explanation for the series of frauds did not stand up to scrutiny “in the cold hard light of day”.

Bolton’s defence counsel, Tom Smedley, said his client had taken the money from the account for associates who had told him it was their inheritance.

The judge jailed Bolton for 17 months on charges of dishonestly using the bank card and cultivating cannabis and ordered him to pay the money back to the bank.

The elderly victim had suffered considerable distress, said the judge, but the bank had decided he should be recompensed for his losses so the debt was now owed to the bank.

Bolton, a tiler, said he wanted to pay back the money, said defence counsel Tom Smedley, who urged that a home detention sentence be imposed so that he could continue working.

The judge jailed Bolton but granted him permission to apply to convert the sentence to home detention if an approved address became available during the sentence. Mr Smedley had wanted the sentencing delayed so that home detention at Bolton’s mother’s home in Papakura, Auckland, could be considered.

However, Judge Strettell said there had already been enough delays for home detention to be arranged and went ahead with the sentencing.

Bolton had obtained the bank card and PIN number and then used the card 77 times around the North Island in March to obtain goods and cash totalling $74,262. Bolton says the proceeds went to the associates and he only obtained about $500 for himself.

When police went to his Manawatu property, they found 104 cannabis plants and seedlings growing, in what the judge described as “a reasonably sophisticated operation”.

Bolton said it was for his own use because he was self-medicating for migraines and seizures. He also said some of the plants were being grown by other people.

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A Christchurch man has pleaded not guilty to a charge arising from a police allegation that he used a pre-hospital emergency care certificate to obtain adrenaline.

The man, who has name suppression, has been charged with possession of a restricted medicine.

He pleaded not guilty in a session at the Christchurch District Court where Community Magistrate Leigh Langridge remanded him at large – no bail was required – to a case review hearing on December 12.

It is alleged he showed a pharmacist his certificate to obtain the drug, which was more than one percent adrenaline, and classified as a prescription medicine.

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Two directors of the Christchurch firm Russley Engineering Ltd have been given home detention terms after admitting tax offences totalling $415,000.

The firm was placed in voluntary liquidation by the shareholders in April 2012, but the pair continued in business with Steam Solutions Ltd which also went into voluntary liquidation in August 2014.

Andrew Edward Batchelor, 52, and Mark Francis Groufsky, 53, both engineers, each admitted two representative charges of knowingly failing to pay tax deductions or withholding tax to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue.

Defence counsel for both men, Simon Clay, said they had $50,000 in a trust account which could be paid immediately towards reparations, and Christchurch District Court Judge John Strettell them to pay $100 each a week back to Inland Revenue for the next five years.

That would mean they repaid a total of about $100,000 of the $415,000 which was the total reparations bill.

Judge Strettell suggested to prosecutor Heather McKenzie that the Commissioner could take civil action against the men to recover the rest of the money if he wished.

The judge said it was an aggravating feature that the pair had set up another company “and proceeded on the same basis” after the first company went into liquidation.

But he said they were men had also operated other successful companies in Christchurch, providing employment for many people, and supporting their families.

He accepted that the offending had happened when the men’s companies were in difficult financial circumstances. “This was not only brought about by their own endeavours,” said Judge Strettell. “It was partially the result of a failure of others to meet financial obligations to these companies.”

The offending had caused a substantial loss to the taxpayers of New Zealand and deterrence and accountability were the primary motives for imposing sentence.

Both men were charged with aiding and abetting the two companies to commit the tax offences.

They were joint directors of Russley Engineering Ltd from December 1998.

The company failed to account for $323,433 to the Commissioner for PAYE deductions, child support employer deductions, Kiwisaver employer deductions, student loan employer deductions, and superannuation cash contributions from August 2009 to April 2011. It made some payments during that period, but then Steam Solutions Ltd also failed to account for $132,331, although it also made some payments.

The total amount not accounted for was $415,455.

The men admitted non-payment of the PAYE was due to “cash flow issues”. An analysis showed that only once out of 36 tax periods was there enough funds to pay the taxes.

Judge Strettell put both men on home detention for nine months and ordered the reparations.

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File image. © Andrew Bardwell

An 11-year-old girl is showing signs of post traumatic stress disorder after repeated rapes by her father, who was today jailed for more than a decade.

The 31-year-old father – his name is suppressed to protect the victim – was jailed for 10 years for the sex offending against the girl, and an additional six months for repeated assaults on a woman.

The man reported the sex offending himself after he was arrested for the assaults early this year.

The three rapes and four incidents of unlawful sexual connection occurred in Christchurch last year when the girl was aged 10.

Christchurch District Court Judge Alistair Garland, who jailed him, said the girl was now showing signs of PTSD at home and at her school. The mother was still in shock after finding out what the man had done, and it had devastated her.

He said the man would have a better understanding of the terrible harm he had caused when he went through the Kia Marama programme for child sex offenders in prison.

He had pleaded guilty to all the charges, including assaulting the woman, damaging the walls of a Housing New Zealand property, and threatening to kill the woman. The assaults including strangling her.

The judge said the sex offending had been opportunistic, except for one occasion when the man had taken the girl to a park in the early hours of the morning to offend against her.

“The victim was extremely vulnerable because of her age, and because you were her father and in a position of authority,” said the judge. “She was entitled to be protected by you, not abused as you have done.”

The man has 38 previous convictions including burglary, violence, theft, receiving stolen property, fraud, driving offences, and breaching court orders. He was assessed as a high risk of re-offending and causing harm to others.

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A 14-year-old Christchurch girl was the victim of rape and violation by the same nighttime intruder who entered her home and committed sex attacks two months apart.

Preventive detention may be considered for 35-year-old Corey David Fowler, a Phillipstown man who admitted eight charges in the High Court at Christchurch today.

The court was told by Crown prosecutor Claire Boshier that Fowler had convictions for sex offences in the 1990s.

She said this, along with the latest convictions, qualified him for the open-ended prison sentence to be considered for his sentencing which has been set for March 16.

Fowler’s guilty pleas to seven sex charges and a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice were entered at a pre-trial session 11 days before his High Court trial was due to begin.

Defence counsel Serina Bailey said there had been a long gap since the earlier offending which had been committed when Fowler was a teenager, and there had been no offending in the intervening years.

Justice Cameron Mander granted the Crown request for the two reports by health assessors – usually a psychologist and a psychiatrist – to be prepared so that a decision could be made on whether to seek preventive detention.

The reports consider the risk of the offender committing further serious crimes.

Fowler admitted two charges of rape, two of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, attempted sexual violation, burglary with a weapon, sexual conduct with a young person, and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

On June 17, 2015, Fowler gained entry to a Christchurch house where the girl was sleeping, and went into her bedroom. He forcibly removed her clothing, raped her, and performed a sex act without her consent.

Between 4am and 5am on August 12, 2015, Fowler again entered the girl’s home, through a bedroom window.

He forced the girl out of bed and blindfolded her with a dressing gown belt. He then produced a knife with a 10cm blade and told the crying girl “it could be done the easy way or the hard way”, Miss Boshier told the court.

The girl still refused to comply, and Fowler then undressed her. He prevented her leaving, held her down, and whenever she tried to call out he pressed the knife against her back.

He then did a series of sex acts on the girl, including rape and anal intercourse.

He took a gold coloured chain from a hook on her door before he left. He told the girl that if she told anyone he would come back and things would be worse next time.

Fowler’s semen was found on the girl’s clothing, and on her body. The gold chain was found in a bag in his partner’s garage.

When Fowler saw that police were making inquiries, he told his partner to say that he had been home with her all night. She made that statement to the police, but retracted it later.

Tracking of his cellphone showed it was in the area of the girl’s house at the time, and not in the area of his partner’s house.

The judge made an order for a psychologist to prepare the girl’s victim impact statement for the sentencing. Miss Boshier said this would give the court better information about the long term effects of the offending on the victim.

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Four more sex charges have been laid against a Christchurch professional man who has now pleaded not guilty to a total of 14 charges.

The case was remanded to a pre-trial callover on January 27, with the man on continued bail.

He has been refused name suppression but the lifting of the order has been appealed in the High Court.

That appeal has been heard and Justice Gerald Nation is due to deliver his reserved decision later this month.

The 61-year-old man had been alleged to have indecently assaulted a series of male victims and had been remanded on bail to a case review hearing in the Christchurch District Court today.

When he appeared, defence counsel Paul Wicks QC said four new charges had now been laid and the man also pleaded not guilty to those charges and elected trial by jury.

The new charges allege three more indecent assaults involving males and one charge of unlawful sexual connection with a male.

The man has had interim suppression of his name and occupation since his first appearance in June. The court was told at a remand appearance in September that he was no longer practising.

He remains on bail.

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Kaiapoi business owner Dave Clemence has admitted Resource Management Act charges relating to earthworks on three North Canterbury properties.

He and his companies, Clemence Drilling Contractors and DC Aqua Properties Ltd, pleaded guilty to a total of five charges in the Christchurch District Court today.

The Waimakariri District Council then dropped 12 other charges. All the charges had been due for a judge-alone trial this week, but the deal today means that does not need to go ahead.

Clemence’s defence counsel Craig Ruane told Judge Paul Kellar that agreement had been reached just before the case was called in court, after negotiations over the last fortnight.

The late agreement meant that the agreed summary of facts was not available to be read in court nor handed to the judge straight away. An official copy will be prepared and handed to the judge and the media.

Sentencing has been set for February 8. The case has not been referred for a restorative justice meeting because no identifiable victims were evident, and no pre-sentence reports have been called for.

Mr Ruane said he and the prosecutor, Heather McKenzie, had agreed that the offences would most likely to dealt with by a fine.

Clemence admitted two charges of not complying with abatement notices, and one “earthworks” charge which states that he exceeded the permitted level of earthworks allowed under the Waimakariri District Plan. The plan permits 1000 sq m of earthworks per hectare.

Clemence Drilling Contractors and DC Aqua Properties Ltd both admitted similar earthworks charges.

The charges relate to properties in Woodend Beach Road, between State Highway 1 and the beach settlement, and at two addresses in Tram Road in the Ohoka area.

They relate to placing soil onto farmland and moving it around. The soil had come from a dairy farm which was being converted to a subdivision. The offences took place in late 2014 and early 2015.

Clemence was in the news at the Christchurch Court House in 2013 when he went to trial on charges of kidnapping and assaulting two men who were caught stealing diesel from his company’s machinery. The pair were assaulted by a group of unknown men and then delivered to the Kaiapoi Police Station.

Clemence was acquitted of assaulting the pair, but was convicted of kidnapping them. The jury evidently found that they had not been delivered to the police promptly enough. He was fined $3000.

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File image. © Andrew Bardwell

A Riccarton manager accused of being “the driving force” in a party pill production scheme has been jailed for four years.

The Crown said the only commonsense conclusion from the evidence in the Christchurch District Court jury trial last month was that Hugh James Robinson, 61, was the driving force in the drugs scheme, even though his son gave evidence taking responsibility.

The 12-day trial was told that pills and powder with a street value of up to $240,000 was found in a series of police raids on Robinson’s house, business premises, storage unit, and car.

The defence at trial had been that Robinson’s son, 29-year-old Jamie Daniel Robinson had been responsible for the drugs, and had not done as he was instructed to destroy them after party pills became illegal in 2008. Jamie Robinson, who has served a jail sentence on drugs charges, gave evidence for the defence at the trial.

Hugh Robinson’s Christchurch company High Performance Health had previously been producing the drugs when they were legal, but he said it had some of the drugs left over when they were banned.

Prosecutor Deidre Orchard said the Crown had maintained that the obvious inference from the evidence was that Robinson was the primary person involved in producing the BZP. “He had the premises, the plant, equipment, and the knowledge. He was able to source the materials,” she said.

Hugh Robinson was convicted in 1992 for cultivating cannabis, importing LSD, and possession of LSD for supply and imprisoned for seven years six months. He was convicted of possession of BZP in 2009.

“Hugh Robinson, who has a background that cannot be ignored, has involved his son in in drug dealing and drug offending,” said Mrs Orchard.

“He has used his business as a mask, to produce BZP,” she said.

Defence counsel Richard Maze said there was no evidence that Hugh Robinson had profited from the sale of BZP. Crown evidence about cash flow and allegations of money laundering in his accounts was “flimsy” and ought to be rejected.

He said that given Jamie Robinson’s guilty pleas on drugs charges, including methamphetamine which was nothing to do with Hugh Robinson, it was a “stretch” for the Crown to suggest that the father had involved his son in drug offending.

Since his earlier drugs convictions, Hugh Robinson had led a “pro-social” life and had been operating legitimate businesses, said Mr Maze.

Robinson was found guilty by the jury of conspiring to sell the class C drugs, possession of them at the various locations, and possession of the sawn-off shotgun and ammunition..

Judge Alistair Garland said Robinson had been arrested after a series of police raids at the end of their Operation Nebraska drugs investigation in October 2013.

He told Robinson: “It is clear that you continued to make BZP in the HPH factory, with the assistance of your son, to sell it.” He had continued production of the drug, after it was banned, to finance his lifestyle.

Jamie Robinson had given evidence that he was responsible, exonerating his father.

“It is not surprising that the jury rejected the explanation given by [Robinson and his son] because it simply did not ring true. The evidence of most of the witnesses called in support, was in my judgment quite unconvincing and of dubious quality to say the least.”

Hugh Robinson maintained his innocence in his pre-sentence interview with a probation officer.

Imposing the jail term, the judge told him that in drug dealing cases, the main factors were deterrence and protection of the community. Robinson had clearly been the brains behind the organisation, and his son had been working for him.

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The Court of Appeal is being asked to consider whether another man could be accused of fatally bashing Michelle Lawrence, after Timothy Joseph Foley had struck her twice with a garden gnome.

Miss Lawrence was found with head injuries at her home in Linwood in June 2012 and died in hospital three weeks later. The Crown said she was repeatedly struck with a crow bar.

Foley was a neighbour who had an intermittent relationship with Miss Lawrence but five days before the fatal assault, she took out a trespass order against him after police attended a domestic dispute.

Foley, 56, appeared by video-link from the prison – where he is serving a life term with a non-parole term of 11 years 8 months – when the Court of Appeal sat in a High Court room in Christchurch today to hear his appeal.

Foley pleaded guilty just before his murder trial, but now says he pleaded guilty because he believed he was not going to be allowed to put forward a defence accusing another man of delivering the fatal blows.

He said he was under pressure to plead guilty because the Crown threatened that if he didn’t they would cite the issue of home invasion and seek a much higher non-parole term.

He accused the Crown and police of twisting the facts to suit themselves and fabricating evidence.

The appeal turns on the advice given to Foley by his defence counsel, Simon Shamy, about whether he could accuse another man of the murder on the basis of the evidence that would be presented at the trial.

Counsel for Foley at the appeal, Hugo Young of Invercargill, said the court rules meant that counsel could not “wantonly or recklessly” cast blame on someone else at trial unless the facts or circumstances given in evidence, or a rational inference, “raised a not unreasonable suspicion”.

The question is whether Foley was denied his right to a fair trial by the combination of what he was told before the trial by the counsel, and the trial judge, Justice Cameron Mander.

“It seems a bit unfortunate that in this case such black and white advice was given,” said the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Stephen Kos QC.

The right advice would have been to tell Foley that the accusation against another man could not be made in the defence opening submissions, but could possibly be made later once evidential matters had been raised that could support it. It could have been pursued if cross-examination of the man “threw up any nuggets”.

Foley phoned 111 after the assault and admitted striking Miss Lawrence, and then left her lying unconscious and left the scene. He later contacted the police, telling them he had snapped because he was jealous of her relationship with another man, and upset by her excessive drinking, the court was told at his sentencing.

Justice Kos said the defence was that Foley said that after he gave Miss Lawrence a couple of whacks to the head, she was then assaulted by another person who had come through the window.

Foley told the court he had realised when he saw the autopsy report on Miss Lawrence that he had not caused the fatal injuries. He had struck her twice with the garden gnome, but she had been struck five or six times. “The rest weren’t inflicted by myself,” he said. “And I never had a crow bar.”

He believed another man – he has been named, but the name is suppressed – had entered the house after his initial bashing and had delivered the blows that killed her.

Crown counsel Mark Lillico said it was common for people to plead guilty to gain advantage. In this case, one of the advantages had been the lesser sentence available. The man Foley had accused of being the murderer had been reinterviewed by police after Foley raised questions about the autopsy results. He was going to be called to give evidence at the trial.

Justice Kos said it was “an interesting and difficult point” when the panel of three Justices reserved its decision. The decision would not be released before Christmas, he said.

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A jury has accepted a foreign woman’s evidence of enduring 10 months of abuse at the hands of her New Zealand travelling companion.

On the 11th day of the trial of a 45-year-old man, the Christchurch District Court jury has returned 17 guilty verdicts, convicting him on every charge.

The convictions include rape, sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, assaults and injuring.

Two assault charges had been dropped during the trial, and one charge was reduced from assault with intent to injure, to assaulting a woman.

Judge Gary MacAskill remanded the man in custody for sentencing on February 15.

He ordered that two health assessors be prepared on the risk the man could pose to the community in the future “to assess whether he is a candidate for preventive detention”.

He told defence counsel Serina Bailey he was getting the reports “because of the cumulative seriousness of the offending” but it was “just an inquiry” and not an indication that he thought preventive detention was the appropriate sentence.

Preventive detention is an open-ended jail term in which an offender is not released until he has undergone sufficient treatment and rehabilitation, or is so elderly that he no longer poses a threat.

The judge also asked for a pre-sentence report on the man, and for a victim impact report on the woman, to be prepared by a psychologist.

The Crown planned to call evidence from 21 witnesses when the trial began on November 2, and the accused gave evidence denying the woman’s allegations.

He said their sexual relationship had been “normal, consensual”, but the woman had spent days giving evidence and being cross-examined on allegations that the man had raped her five times during 10 months when they travelled around New Zealand together. They were freedom camping in a van or doing casual work.

The woman told of being tied up and sexually abused, including being sexually violated with a knife blade, a hand saw handle, and a vibrator. She described a series of assaults in the North and South Islands.

The man described himself in evidence as a Jehovah’s Witness and brought his own Bible to take his oath as a witness.

The man does not have name suppression but the couple were together in a relationship for so long that he cannot be named without identifying the victim, who has automatic suppression.

Judge MacAskill thanked the Crown prosecutors, Barnaby Hawes and Donald Matthews, and the defence team of Mrs Bailey and Ethan Huda, for the way in which they had handled the trial. He told the defence counsel: “You have certainly done your best for [the accused].”

Judge MacAskill thanked the jury for enduring a long trial as well as earthquakes in the meantime. They had been helpful and accommodating in getting the trial to its completion.

The judge summed up for the jury on Thursday and they then retired late on Thursday to begin considering their verdicts. They returned the 17 guilty verdicts on Friday evening.

The man remained impassive in the dock as the verdicts were read in a silent court room. Judge MacAskill read him a first strike warning under the system that imposes heavier penalties on repeat sexual and violent offenders.

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A judge has told a burglar that he should consider going straight because he’s not very good at burglary.

Judge Peter Rollo jailed 25-year-old Gareth Eyre for 19 months for the burglary of the Addington Primary School on July 19.

Eyre was found with multi plugs and cords stolen from the school’s music room after a break-in, after being tracked by a police dog team.

Another offender, Nathan Ihaka Te Hana, 42, was jailed for 15 months on Wednesday after admitting being party to the burglary. He was caught at the same time, but had not entered the school himself.

Eyre’s sentencing was delayed for two days to see if Addington Primary School staff members were willing to meet him at a restorative justice meeting where he would have apologised. They declined, so his sentencing went ahead in the Christchurch District Court on Friday.

Judge Rollo told Eyre: “You have got a pattern of burglaries to your life. You have spent quite a bit of time in custody as a result.

“Your record indicates you are not particularly accomplished as a burglar because you keep getting caught.

“I suggest you make your way in the community without resort to crime. Start on a different form of life which doesn’t have you in conflict with the law.”

He jailed Eyre for 19 months, with six months of post-release conditions when he will have to undergo assessment, counselling, treatment, or training as required.

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Karma the dangerous American Pit Bull is in hiding from a death sentence while her owner begins a three-year ten-month jail term for his own towering temper.

Karma seized on a woman’s face when she visited the owner, Liam Michael Ryan Morris at his home in Belfast.

The dog suddenly locked onto the woman’s face as she sat on a couch, and the jaws had to be prised open. The attack put her in hospital and has left her with significant scarring, she told the Christchurch District Court sentencing session for 26-year-old Ryan-Morris.

When Ryan-Morris pleaded guilty to a list of violence charges shortly before his trial, an order was made for Karma’s destruction but the dog has never been found.

Judge Jane Farish told him today: “If you know where Karma is, it is in your interests to notify the authorities. She is not safe within the community, and it is not fair on the dog for her to be in that position.”

The court heard victim impact statements from three women left with physical and emotional damage from Ryan-Morris’ offending, mostly fuelled by alcohol and methamphetamine – a habit he has apparently dealt with while on remand.

The judge referred to a psychological report on his anger issues, which are said to arise from the violence, manipulation, and abuse he experienced in his childhood. The risk remains high if he feels he or his relationship is threatened, and if he is under the influence of alcohol or methamphetamine.

However, the risk will be lowered if he does undergoes treatment and programmes during his prison term, and abstains from alcohol and drugs.

Judge Farish said she was “surprised and relieved” that Ryan-Morris had done so well while on bail. The sentencing recognised that he was “on the cusp of change” and he had courageously come to court knowing that he would be jailed, and delivering his own apology to his victims.

He said from the dock that he wanted this to be the last time anyone had to face “anything like this”, and told the women: “I’m sorry.”

He had pleaded guilty to 12 charges of threatening to kill, assaults, injuring, and owning a dog that attacked a person.

One victim was his former partner who was repeatedly punched, kicked, and threatened with a loaded firearm. At least twice, she thought she was going to be killed. She was forced to get money for Ryan-Morris, and was beaten once for changing her bank account.

The woman neighbour who heard the violence and repeatedly called the police or noise control officials about loud music at 3am, was repeatedly threatened with being shot and had to move houses. She still has an injured arm from being bitten during a cross-fence dispute with Ryan-Morris when his dog bit her. No charge was laid for that.

The third woman was bitten on the face during a visit to the house in March 2016. She said she had seen Ryan-Morris up to 10 times since then and he had never shown any remorse but had only been interested in whether she was going to make a complaint. Her facial scar would never fade completely.

Judge Farish said all three women had been left physically and emotional damaged by Ryan-Morris’ offending, including having issues with anxiety and depression. All might have post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ryan-Morris is now with another partner who is pregnant with his child – he is already a father from a previous relationship. He was unable to pay any meaningful reparations to the victim of the dog attack because he had used whatever savings he had to set his present partner up for his time in prison.

After he was jailed for three years ten months with a series of concurrent sentences, he called to another man in the back of the court: “Look after my girl.”

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A woman who used a bank card stolen only an hour earlier in a gunpoint street robbery, has been sentenced to two months’ home detention in a residential rehabilitation programme.

Janita Chloe Pash, 28, was sentenced for receiving stolen cell phones, shoplifting clothing from The Warehouse, possession of a knife, receiving a bank card, and using the stolen bank card twice.

Defence counsel Tom Smedley said there was a bed available in an eight week residential programme on November 28.

Judge Gary MacAskill said he would sentence Pash on her dishonesty charges, and when she had completed the residential programme satisfactorily, he would sentence her to intensive supervision for breaching her release conditions, on January 23, 2017.

Police said a man was robbed at gunpoint by two people on Wainoni Road on August 20, and his bag with his wallet, cell phone and passport photos was taken.

Pash received the property within a very short time, and forty-two minutes after the robbery she used the stolen bank card to buy tobacco and cigarettes worth $67.60 from a service station.

Ten minutes later she used it again at another service station to buy more tobacco and cigarettes worth $72.80.

Judge MacAskill ordered reparation payments for the two service stations, and $69 for The Warehouse.

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A judge has spoken of the “sometimes almost impossible standards” imposed on employers in safeguarding employees who sometimes cause their own workplace injuries.

Christchurch District Court Judge Alistair Garland imposed fines and reparations totalling $35,312 on Pegasus Fishing Ltd and trawler skipper Brad Murray Gillon because of the injuries to the hand of an employee from Indonesia.

Pegasus will have to pay emotional harm reparations of $8000 and a $17,718 fine. Mr Gillon will have to pay reparations of $2000 and a $7594 fine.

The worker, Kahurdin, has since returned to Indonesia, with part of two fingers on his right hand amputed after his hand was caught in a winch mechanism aboard the Shemara in November 2015, south of the Akaroa Heads.

According to counsel for Pegasus, Cameron Lawes of Nelson, the worker was now getting on with his life. Although the man had not made a victim impact statement, he reported that he had some mobility in his fingers, had returned to work. “He is expressing it as being his fault, and getting on and beyond it,” Mr Lawes said.

Maritime New Zealand prosecuted the fishing company and skipper for failing to take all practicable steps to keep a worker safe at the workplace. They pleaded guilty.

Mr Gillon had already warned the worker – verbally, and in English to a worker for whom it was not a first language – after finding him attempting to grease the machinery while the winch was working with the turning drums pulling in the net.

There was then an accident in which his hand was trapped and he lost part of two fingers from his right hand, amputed after the hand was cut and fractured and received nerve damage.

Counsel for Maritime New Zealand, Alice McCubbin-Howell, described the accident, telling the judge: “It is completely accepted by the prosecution that it was not a particularly sensible thing to do.”

The risk had since been simply addressed by the employer with a yellow band with instructions not to go into that area while the reels were being operated. Guards have been fitted.

“It is a bit of a minefield for employers, isn’t it?” said Judge Garland.

The lawyer replied: “It is a high standard. There is no question about that.”

The sentencing session considered whether the victim’s foolish behaviour had to be taken into account in assessing culpability.

Judge Garland said: “These are difficult cases. The legislation does place an extremely high standard on employers – sometimes an almost impossible standard.”

For Mr Gillon, defence counsel Graeme Riach said the crew member had understood the instruction from the skipper not to do what he had previously attempted to do. He said his client was aged 47, and had been a fisherman for 27 years – 20 as a skipper. This was his first time before the court.

He referred to the accident taking place in the context of “rather bizarre conduct on the part of the crew member”.

Judge Garland said the crew member acknowledged he had disobeyed instructions, and his conduct had been “a material contributing cause of the accident”.

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The trial of a man accused of the murder of sex worker Renee Larissa Duckmanton will be the first trial in the Christchurch High Court’s new premises next year.

Sainey Marong denies the charge of murdering the 22-year-old woman, whose body was found on May 15, at the scene of a scrub fire on the Main Rakaia Road, north of Rakaia.

Thirty-two-year-old Marong is accused of murdering her at Christchurch on that day or the previous day.

Many members of the victim’s family were present for a pre-trial call-over before Justice Cameron Mander in the High Court at Christchurch today.

Justice Mander ordered a psychiatric report on Marong under the Criminal Procedures (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act and remanded him in custody to December 16, to decide when pre-trial arguments would be heard.

The date for the trial had been set for June 6, but Justice Mander was told today that the trial would need to be delayed a week to begin on June 12 because the High Court would be moving into its new premises in the Justice and Emergency Services Precinct.

The precinct, a $300m anchor project now under construction, is on the corner of Tuam, Durham, and Lichfield Streets in central Christchurch.

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