Greed rather than need led an office administrator to steal $400,000 from her employer, said a Christchurch judge as he jailed the woman for three years.

Christchurch District Court Judge Alistair Garland lifted name suppression on 44-year-old Charmaine Herron, telling her: “Your motivation appears to have been lifestyle choices.”

But he left suppression orders in place on the name of the employer, after hearing that publication would be likely to cause the firm further financial loss. He also suppressed details about the woman’s background contained in her affidavit and suppression submissions by her defence counsel Glenn Dixon.

Herron, a mother-of-two, was allowed to sit throughout the hour-long sentencing. She looked frail and upset and was helped into court by family and supporters. The sentencing was told of repeated suicide attempts.

She was managing the human resources and payroll systems for the firm for 10 years until her offending was found out last year. Crown prosecutor Anselm Williams said she had falsified 148 payroll entries over nine years which meant $400,969 was paid into her account.

Mr Dixon said Herron had co-operated with the authorities when the offending was discovered and had put the proceeds from the sale of her house towards reparations. The court was told she had also paid over a trust fund. This left $230,000 in unpaid reparations, but there was little prospect of her being able to pay much of that amount back when she began work after her release from jail.

He sought final suppression of her name on the grounds of extreme hardship.

The Crown opposed final suppression and Judge Garland agreed, saying that although she had since obtained work with another employer who knew of her situation, future employers would not know of her dishonesty unless she disclosed it.

The offending had had a significant impact on the firm, both financially and because of the additional controls it had to put in place. It now had to rely less on the trust placed on staff.

Herron pleaded guilty in November to two charges of theft by a person in a special relationship. She told a probation officer before the sentencing that she had decided to steal from the employer to “keep everyone happy” and ensure that a family business would succeed. When her marriage collapsed, she found “other uses” for the money she stole, the judge said. The offending had arisen from greed, not need.

It was discovered when the firm got in another person to audit the systems in Herron’s absence. She had then admitted the offending and co-operated.

Mr Williams said her previous good character did not warrant a reduction in the sentence because the offending had gone on for so many years.

Judge Garland allowed a reduction in the jail term because of her co-operation, her remorse, and her payment towards reparation.

He jailed her for three years, and ordered that she pay $50,000 towards the remaining reparation when she gets work after her release. He noted that her present work with a different employer did not involve handling money.

He refused final suppression for her because publication would not cause extreme hardship, even though she reacted to stress with attempts at self-harm. “I am aware that your difficulties are well known to the health professionals and you have been receiving appropriate care.”

The principle of open justice was not outweighed by the personal factors she had highlighted, he said.

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A man who was found dealing in methamphetamine at the address where he was on electronically monitored bail, was jailed in the Christchurch District Court today.

In October 2014 Stephen Wallace Smith, 33, was charged with possession of methamphetamine for supply, and unlawful possession of two firearms, and was bailed to live at his mother’s address.

In December 2014 police raided the bail address and found more methamphetamine, and charged him with another count of possession of methamphetamine for supply.

In the October offending, police found 3g methamphetamine, cash, and a loaded .22 rifle under Smith’s bed, a loaded revolver in the lounge, and 56g methamphetamine and a safe with $300 cash in the garage.

In December, police found 3.7g methamphetamine in Smith’s car in the driveway, more methamphetamine in the drain of the shower, and $2010 cash.

Judge Raoul Neave said Smith had no drug offending history, but admitted a drug addiction problem which he was dealing with in prison. He had certificates from programmes he had done during his time in prison, and was working towards rehabilitation.

He sentenced Smith to prison for six years three months, and ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs and firearms, and forfeiture of the cash found.

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A man was told that his obsessive, controlling, stalking behaviour would not be tolerated by the Christchurch District Court before he was sentenced to 18 months prison.

Dennis William Fishburn, 27, was sentenced for assaulting a man with a pole, and setting fire to a car, on the West Coast.

Judge Raoul Neave said Fishburn had an appalling record for violent offending and he would not be granted a home detention sentence even if it was recommended, but would go to prison.

Defence counsel David Bunce said Fishburn had written an apology letter to the victim of the offending, and he did try to put the fire out in the car after setting it alight so there was not huge damage.

Judge Neave said the man offended while he was under a police safety order, and when the people at the address came outside because the car was on fire, Fishburn hit one on the head with a pole. The man had to have three stitches in the back of his head, and had headaches.

Fishburn had 15 previous convictions, including assaults, willful damage, and arson, Judge Neave said.

He acknowledged that Fishburn had started counselling, but he was assessed as a high risk for further offending without help.

He said Fishburn’s obsessive, controlling, stalking behaviour would not be tolerated by the court and sentenced him to prison, and reparation of $500 to be paid for the burnt car.

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A former brothel house in England Street, Phillipstown, is on the market while the owner struggles with “technical insolvency” and a $10,000 fine for breaching Christchurch City Council bylaws.

Fan Jiang, 49, widowed when her husband died after the prosecution began, will have help to pay the fine and Judge Craig Thompson said the fine would be “a reasonable proposition” when the property was sold.

The house is no longer operating as a brothel.

Through defence lawyer Christopher Persson, Jiang today offered her apology to a woman neighbour “for any disturbance to the environment” when the brothel was running.

Persson had suggested a fine of $2000, while the prosecutor for the city council, Kelvin Reid, suggested a starting point of up to $40,000.

Judge Thompson decided to start his fine calculations in the wide middle ground after finding Jiang guilty of breaching rules about operating the business after 11pm in a residential area, and also finding she had breached a council abatement notice.

After seeing Mr Persson’s written submissions that Jiang was now “technically bankrupt”, Judge Thompson considered whether community work should be imposed as an alternative to a fine.

Mr Reid commented: “I completely accept that ability to pay is a matter Your Honour must take into account.”

Jiang was “technically insolvent at the moment”, Mr Persson said. “Agents are at work with regard to one of the properties and she could pay off a modest fine.”

Judge Thompson confirmed that the sale related to the England Street property which was the subject of the council prosecution in which Jiang denied five charges. She was convicted in December on two charges, but was acquitted on the other three.

Mr Persson described it as “relatively modest offending”. There had been no damage to the urban environment other than by people arriving and leaving the property outside the permitted hours. The trial heard of only five proven instances of people going to the house after 11pm – the time limit set in the council’s bylaws for businesses in residential areas. The council prosecution began in 2013.

“There was no evidence that she was there at the time or knew that the rule about the hours of operation were being breached,” he said.

“The business has now ceased completely. There was modest operation of the business – not by Jiang but by another lady – in 2014 and 2015, and there have been no further complaints,” he said. There had been compliance with the council’s abatement notice since November 2013.

“She is getting budgeting advice and assistance with her finances to put them on track,” he said.

Judge Thompson said the brothel operation had caused disruption late at night to the reasonable amenity of a residential neighbourhood. “That is exactly what the rules in the District Plan were designed to prevent.”

It was clear the offences were deliberate. The business had been operated over an extended period, and it had made a profit though he was unable to say how much. Considerable sums of cash had been found in a drop box on the premises, by council inspectors.

“It is clear that Miss Jiang had the ability to stop the breaches had she been minded to do so.” She could have taken more close personal supervision to stop the breaches.

“She has expressed regret to her immediate neighbour about the disruption to her,” said the judge. In his view the apology “comes a little late, and rather remotely”.

“I have seen her attitude to these offences over a considerable period. It has been a confused denial that it was her doing or her problem. It continued in the face of a very clear warning in terms of the abatement notice.”

Jiang had acknowledged that she had run similar businesses before.

In reply to a submission by Mr Persson, the judge said the brothel operation with cars and people arriving and departing late at night was “more than ordinary usage” for a residential neighbourhood. For good reason, the council had rules applying to businesses in such residential areas.

He fined Jiang $10,000 with an order – normal in such cases – that 90 percent of the fine be paid to the council. Jiang will also have to pay solicitor’s fees.

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A friendly dragon kite gets airborne at the annual Kite Day at New Brighton beach today. No crime in sight anywhere.

Hundreds turned out to the watch people launch anything they could imagine into the air in a light on-shore breeze at New Brighton beach.

Just something for our regular Court News readers, as a break from the relentless diet of deceit, mayhem, and general bad behaviour.

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A 20-year-old mother has admitted being the get-away driver for two dairy robberies.

Larissa Rose Stevens pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated robbery in the Christchurch District Court today.

She drove Jesse Mana-Roy Kahu and Claudia Jade Francis Martin to the Hoon Hay Special Dairy on August 31, and waited in the car while the armed duo tried to rob it of cash, tobacco and cigarettes. They were fought off by the dairy owner and a customer, who both sustained injuries, and left empty handed.

They ran back to the car, and Stevens drove them to Selwyn Street Dairy, where she again waited in the car.

There Kahu and Martin took cigarettes and tobacco, and removed money from the till. The shop keeper at that address was not injured.

Kahu, 22, and Martin, 20, have already been sentenced and were each jailed for four years three months.

Defence counsel for Stevens, Rupert Glover, said he had placed a psychiatric report on the court’s file to be taken into account at her sentencing.

Judge Brian Callaghan read Stevens the three strike warning for repeat violent offenders, and remanded her on bail for sentencing on April 6.

He requested that a pre-sentence report to include Stevens’ suitability for a home detention sentence, and a victim impact report, be prepared for the sentencing.

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The High Court has ruled that Phillip James Musson’s wife and mother-in-law benefited from his dealings in illegal steroids and the trio will forfeit the Bishopdale house they owned.

The ruling by Justice Gerald Nation follows months of hearings and submissions in which the Commissioner of Police applied for profit forfeiture orders against Musson, his wife Lesley Anne Musson, and his mother-in-law Anne Maria Hammill, aged 74.
Musson has served a jail sentence for dealing in illegal steroids and performance enhancing drugs. He was jailed for four years, five months, and three weeks after pleading guilty to 187 Medicines Act charges.

The scale of his operation has emerged in Justice Nation’s findings on the forfeiture application. The commissioner assessed the value of Musson’s criminal activity as $795,958.

Justice Nation has now ruled that the property at 40 Breens Road, where the couple lived, and the widowed Mrs Hammill lived in a two-bedroom extension she paid to build, must be sold.

According to the complicated ruling, the maximum amount that could be recovered from Phillip and Lesley Musson would be $498,834. This is the assessed value of Musson’s criminal activity minus money recovered from another respondent – who has name suppression – as well as $5000 cash found at the house, a mortgage on the property, and the amount forfeited by Mrs Hammill.

He has assessed the amount recoverable from Mrs Hammill as $99,907.

Justice Nation noted that when the women asked about what Musson was doing, he would reply that if he told them, he would have to kill them. It was regarded as a joke, but they made no further inquiries about the legality of the operation which involved materials and cash coming and going, often under false names.

Prescription medicines with a street value of $1,256,300 were imported by Musson or were in his possession. The Crown did not go ahead with a separate prosecution relating to party pills. Justice Nation said Musson had been involved in “significant criminal activity”.

The three opposed the profit forfeiture order being sought against them, arguing that Mrs Musson and Mrs Hammill had not unlawfully benefited from the criminal activity, and that forfeiture would involve undue hardship for all three and for the Mussons’ daughter.

Justice Nation said: “Mrs Musson and Mrs Hammill will have knowingly benefited from Mr Musson’s criminal activity if their suspicions were aroused that he may have been engaged in such criminal activity but [they] deliberately refrained from making inquiry in order to avoid learning whether the suspicion was justified.”

A search warrant at the home in May 2012 uncovered 11 false driver licences – five showing Musson, and six with photos of Mrs Musson – and in that search and another in February 2013, 18 cell phones were found. Couriers often had to call at the house in circumstances which it is likely all occupants would have been aware of. Those calls were in relation to Musson’s offending.

Musson said he kept both women “in the dark” about his offending.

Mrs Hammill’s bank account was used to receive some payments.

Mrs Musson had income of only $3,118.33 from Work and Income benefits over the period 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2013. Located in the spare bedroom of her home, when the search warrant was executed on 23 May 2012, were numerous cash receipts for purchases totalling $87,781.

Of the $58,219.23 spent on apparel and accessories, $55,605.13 was spent on female clothing. This included purchases for high-end designer wear and accessories including Trelise Cooper clothing and jewellery ($10,190.71) and at least $6,378.40 on lingerie and $4,086.90 on footwear. The majority of clothes purchased were located in the master bedroom and the spare room next to the master bedroom. The spare room was packed with clothing, shoes and haberdashery and was difficult to walk around.

Leisure spending included $1440 spent on 19 August 2011 at Select Braemar Lodge and Spa, a high-end luxurious retreat on the outskirts of Hanmer.

Mrs Musson had asked questions, but chose not to seek answers. She had “knowingly benefited” from the criminal activity, Justice Nation said.

Mrs Hammill was paid to put substances into vials, on Musson’s instructions. On execution of the search warrant at 40 Breens Road in May 2012, located in Mrs Hammill’s rooms were prescription medicines, anabolic steroids and human growth hormones.

Justice Nation ruled that although Mrs Hammill was not aware of the full extent of Musson’s offending, this was because she was “wilfully blind” to what was happening.

He rejected the argument that forfeiture of the property would cause undue hardship.

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A 19-year-old Avonhead teen admits kidnapping and robbing an Upper Riccarton man in January, but denies assaulting him.

Shem Brokenshire pleaded guilty to kidnap and aggravated robbery charges, but pleaded not guilty to assaulting the man with a screwdriver, when he appeared by video-link from the prison in the Christchurch District Court today.

He also pleaded guilty to driving charges, shoplifting from a Papanui liquor store and damaging the shop’s door, and breaches of court imposed sentences.

Brokenshire and a co-offender forced the man into his 1989 Jaguar Sovereign car and drove him to the Bush Inn Centre where Brokenshire used the victim’s eft-pos card to withdraw $300.

He then drove to the Avonhead Mall and withdrew another $500, but at the BP service station at Church Corner the victim escaped and called the police. He was treated at hospital for minor stab wounds.

Brokenshire used the eft-pos card to purchase $50 of fuel from Z Service Station Hornby, and another $73.50 of products from Z Templeton.

Brokenshire drove inland near Rakaia, where he did a series of skids and donuts on a gravel road and crashed into a hay bale. The car broke down and was towed to the Challenge Service Station in Winchester, where staff became suspicious when the pair asked to use the phone to order a taxi back to Christchurch.

The police were called, and Brokenshire returned a positive result in a alcohol breath-test, and admitted he did not have a driver’s licence.

Judge Gary MacAskill remanded Brokenshire in custody for sentencing on April 27.

His 15-year-old  alleged co-offender is being dealt with in the Youth Court.

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A jury has taken just 30 minutes to acquit a St Albans man on a serious bashing charge.

Judge Alistair discharged 52-year-old Stephen Edward Fenelon immediately and told him he could leave the dock.

The judge told the jury: “If it is any comfort to you, based on the evidence you heard, I agree with you.”

Mr Fenelon had denied a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm in the four-day trial in the Christchurch District Court.

The defence team of Tony Garrett and Kiran Paima argued that the jury could not be sure who had carried out the bashing and when.

Crown prosecutor Aja Trinder presented the case that Mr Fenelon had bashed the alleged victim, Ahmed Hassan Ahmed – a Muslim man of Somalian background – after asking him if he was an Islamic State supporter.

Mr Ahmed told the court that he remembered pushing Mr Fenelon and telling him he was an idiot before there was wrestling and being eye-gouged. He had not other recollection of the assault.

He woke later to find he had been badly beaten and had a fractured eye-socket that put him in hospital for surgery to insert a titanium plate.

The trial was told the assault took place after a congenial 21st birthday party at the Sydenham Cricket Club rooms in Brougham Street, after Mr Fenelon and Mr Ahmed had drunk together and chatted cheerfully about their shared interest in London football teams.

But the Crown said Mr Fenelon’s mood had later darkened and the assault had taken place.

The defence pointed to conflicting accounts by Mr Ahmed about who had inflicted the injuries, including a suggestion that he had been set upon by a group.

Mr Fenelon had given evidence that he had not carried out the bashing and knew nothing of it until he and his partner found the victim, injured, at the clubrooms.

Judge Garland summed up for the jury this morning and they began their deliberations at 2.15pm. At 2.45pm they knocked on the jury room door to indicate they had reached their verdict and then came out to announce the acquittal.

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Repeat sex offender David Stanley John Tranter says the Filipina woman he married while on the run overseas from the New Zealand authorities has now been killed in a flood.

Tranter (pictured) was today jailed indefinitely under a preventive detention order imposed by Justice David Gendall in the High Court at Christchurch on five child sexual abuse charges.

The convictions were the latest in a criminal history that stretched back 49 years, said Justice Gendall as he imposed the open-ended jail sentence that will keep 65-year-old Tranter in prison until he is seen as no longer imposing a threat.

Health assessors reports saw him as a moderate-to-high risk of further offending. One said that if he offended again it would most likely be against a child aged under 16, and most likely a girl – “Although he presents a risk to all children.”

Tranter had been found guilty at a jury trial last year of indecent assault on a boy aged under 12, sodomy on a boy, sexual connection with a girl aged under 16, inducing a boy under 12 to do an indecent act, and rape of a teenage girl.

Tranter continues to deny the offending and he has not completed his two efforts at rehabilitation through the Kia Marama programme for sex offenders at Christchurch Prison.

Justice Gendall said Tranter was now a widower since his Filipina wife had died in floods that occurred in the Philippines recently.

In August, Typhoon Goni killed at least nine people in the northern Philippines through flooding and landslides.

After serving one of his jail terms, Tranter absconded from his extended supervision order in 2007 and travelled to the Philippines where he married a woman.

He was eventually tracked down and arrested by the Philippines Bureau of Immigration when they found him in Davao City in 2009 and he could not produce his passport. He was deported to New Zealand in early 2010 to face charges of breaching his parole and extended supervision.

In online reports of his deportation, comments turned up from a woman named Dalia Ausan, who said she was his wife. She wrote: “I can’t believe for what I read. He’s become a nice person and husband to me. I can’t believe this.”

She said she came from a poor family and was then 23 years old. “I still love David,” she wrote among the online comments. “I hate person judge him so much.”

Defence counsel Lee Lee Heah urged Justice Gendall to stop short of imposing preventive detention, saying that the health assessors did not agree on the risk he posed. One of their reports was “tentative”. She said it was not fair that the victims blamed all their troubles on Tranter’s offending against them. Even a finite jail term would mean he was an old man when he would be released from prison.

But Crown prosecutor Deirdre Elsmore said the nature of Tranter’s offending meant he would continue to be a risk right into his old age. In spite of his convictions, he continued to deny having any sexual attraction to children at any time in his life, and continued to minimise his offending.

Justice Gendall said Tranter had 49 convictions stretching back 49 years including eight for sexual offending, eight for violence, and 17 for dishonesty.

The victim impact statements were troubling and concerning and “make chilling reading”, said the judge. His offending had had a devastating effect on the children, who were now adults.

He decided that a nine-year jail term, which he would have imposed, was not adequate to protect the community and its vulnerable children. Without treatment, Tranter posed a significant risk.

He said Tranter could not be considered for release until at least five years had passed.

Tranter defeated the judge’s order that he was allowed to be photographed in court by simply holding a large envelope in front of his face for a long period.

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The diversion scheme for first offenders has been granted to a man charged over an assault at Riccarton Park Racecourse during New Zealand Cup and Show Week.

Police said at the time that the victim – apparently “king hit” in an incident likely fuelled by alcohol – had requested diversion for his attacker.

Hayden Shane Winter, a 21-year-old electrician from Bishopdale was charged with assault and was remanded for the police to consider the diversion scheme, which allowed first offenders to avoid a conviction. The assault occurred on November 14.

Usually, they have to apologise to the victim, rectify any damage, do some community service, or pay a donation.

Once the police signal that the diversion requirements have been met, the case is dropped at court. The Christchurch District Court indicated that diversion had been granted and Winter had been discharged this week.

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A Christchurch man has rather diluted the impact of his very public apology for drink-driving by pleading not guilty and taking the case to trial.

Bay Aperahama Haika’s newspaper advertisements have featured in the media this week ahead of his Christchurch District Court appearance today on a charge of drink-driving on December 18.

“I am sincerely sorry for my actions,” he wrote in the classified notice “to the wider communities”.

The 55-year-old said he lost his licence for 28 days when he was caught and he said he expected to lose it for longer when he appeared in court today.

Media have carried photographs of Haika and interviews with him this week in which he said he hoped his public contrition would serve as a warning to others.

That public contrition took a hit today when Haika came to the Christchurch Court House and got a registrar’s remand on the drink-driving charge.

He pleaded not guilty and was remanded on bail to April 12 for a case review hearing – the next step on the way to a trial.

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A Bromley woman denies charges of endangering two children by having them living at a property where methamphetamine was allegedly being manufactured.

Jasmine Aroha Karetai, 36, pleaded not guilty before a Christchurch District Court registrar and was remanded on bail to a Crown case review session on April 18.

Her arrest followed a police raid in early December on a property in McGregors Road where the Fire Service was called in to decontaminate the occupants.

Karetai has been jointly charged with Gary Mark De Latour, 48, who has already pleaded not guilty and has been remanded in custody to a case review hearing on April 11.

Karetai is charged that having the care of two children aged under 18, she intentionally engaged in manufacturing methamphetamine which was likely to expose the children to toxic fumes and dangerous and highly flammable chemicals and cause adverse health effects.

The charge alleges her conduct was “a major departure from the standard of care to be expected of a reasonable person”.

She is also charged with unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition, supplying the class A drug, possession of methamphetamine, possession of it for supply, and possession of equipment and chemicals for drugs manufacture.

The court was told at an earlier appearance that the children had been removed from the address.

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A central city man faces a $13,958 bill after losing his money at Christchurch Casino and then losing his employer’s money as well.

The 39-year-old bar manager, Andrew Richard Coleman, admitted a charge of theft from a St Albans liquor store when he appeared before Judge Paul Kellar in the Christchurch District Court today.

Defence counsel Nicola Hansen said she had some concerns about the way the loss was calculated, but Coleman had said he would repay the money.

“He accepts he has cost the company a lot of money and will repay that amount,” she said.

Judge Kellar remanded Coleman on bail for sentencing on April 27, and asked for a report on his suitability for home detention, but also warned him that was not an indication of what the sentence would be.

Police prosecutor David Rusbatch said Coleman had been promoted to the post of manager at the liquor shop last year.

Twice in early December he returned to the premises after 11pm, when it was closed, and used his personal code to deactivate the alarm before taking bags of cash from the safe.

When he was asked about it, he admitted taking $1300 and a date was agreed for him to leave his job.

However, checks then discovered a $13,958 discrepancy between the cash received at the tills and the amount banked.

Coleman was interviewed and told the police that he had returned to the liquor shop twice after hours, because he was drunk and had lost his money at the casino. He had taken the cash and gone back to the casino intending to win his money back, but both times he had lost all that money as well.

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A 20-year-old man who has admitted the rape of an intellectually disabled teenager while she slept has been warned not to “take anything” from being granted bail pending sentencing – he will certainly be jailed.

The Crown sentencing was set for April 13 by Christchurch District Court Judge Paul Kellar after the man pleaded guilty to one rape charge. The Crown dropped other charges of rape and unlawful sexual connection.

Defence counsel Bryan Green applied for bail for the man during the sentencing remand, and Judge Kellar granted it when the Crown prosecutor, Barnaby Hawes, said there was no objection.

Judge Kellar ruled out any home detention sentence by declining to seek the necessary pre-sentence assessment. He told the man: “Imprisonment for more than two years is inevitable. You are not to take anything from the fact that you are being admitted to bail in the meantime.”

He also gave the man a first strike warning under the system that imposes heavier penalties on repeat sexual and violent offenders.

The Crown said that the man got into bed with an intellectual disabled teenage girl while she slept. She remained asleep while he removed her lower clothing and had sex.

He later told the police that sex had only lasted 30 seconds before he realised it was wrong, and stopped. He was aware of the girl’s intellectual disability and knew that she would not know what sex was, and would not have wanted it to occur.

Because of the victim’s intellectual disability, specialists will be called in if a restorative justice meeting can take place, and to prepare the victim impact statement ahead of the sentencing.

Judge Kellar granted interim name suppression.

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A 31-year-old Aranui man has denied a charge that he took an upskirt photograph of a woman at Northlands shopping centre on December 12.

In the Christchurch District Court, Maurice Hemi Williams pleaded not guilty to intentionally making an intimate visual recording of another person, but pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching a protection order by behaviour which amounted to psychological abuse of a woman on December 15.

Judge Brian Callaghan remanded Williams in custody on the breach charge to March 3, when he is defending another charge of breaching a protection order, and to a case review hearing for the alleged intimate visual recording on April 18.

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A 73-year-old man who allegedly sexually attacked a woman walking on Shirley Road has been given a registrar’s remand to appear in Christchurch District Court on March 7.

Sheragha Ahmadi, who arrived at the court house using a walking stick, was charged with indecently assaulting the woman on February 9.

Ahmadi had an interpreter at court to help him through the registrar’s remand process today.

The police said that after the assault about 9am on Tuesday, the man walked away down Shirley Road and was found beside the school.

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A judge has rejected a man’s suggestion that he was unaware of acceptable standards of behaviour in New Zealand after he admitted secretly video-taping a 15-year-old girl 35 times.

The man is a migrant to New Zealand, and is now living at a friend’s house because his relationship broke up after the offending against the girl was discovered.

Defence counsel Andrew Riches tried to suggest that the man had not appreciated the seriousness with which the courts viewed this type of offending, but Christchurch District Court Judge Raoul Neave stopped him short.

Judge Neave said the man had been in New Zealand for 12 years, and he did not accept that the man could not have understood.

He told the man: “I would be highly surprised if this conduct would have been tolerated in your own country as well. You had to know this was despicable behaviour.”

The 43-year-old man’s offending was found out when the girl found a key ring camera had been left operating under some plastic on the bathroom window sill.

The girl took the camera to school where she put its memory card into an iPad and found recordings, including some showing her showering, or getting changed in her bedroom. Some of the videos later found on the man’s memory cards focused on her genital and breast area.

The man had pleaded guilty in November to a representative charge of making objectionable publications and was remanded for sentence today.

Judge Neave said the girl had been left “feeling vulnerable and paranoid” which was not surprising but she had a fairly robust attitude and she had not had counselling. “With time and appropriate assistance it may be that no lasting damage has been done.”

He said the man had a good work history and his employer was continuing to support him.

He imposed a sentence of five months’ home detention at an address in Christchurch, with a special condition that he continue treatment.

He also refused name suppression, but said he put the media “on notice” that nothing could be published that would identify the victim. It was clear that publishing the man’s name would identify the victim, so it could not be published, Judge Neave said.

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A 20-year-old is in custody after admitting he was the ringleader for two armed dairy robberies described as “amateur hour exercises” by a judge.

Defence counsel Craig Ruane applied for bail for Joshua Felise Nuu pending sentencing, saying that the robberies were “pretty amateur” since no disguises had been used and the incidents had been caught on security camera.

But Christchurch District Court Judge Raoul Neave told Nuu: “Stupidity is not a ground for granting people bail.”

He remanded Nuu in custody for sentencing on May 10, after guilty pleas on charges of armed robbery and assault with intent to rob.

Mr Ruane said prison was not inevitable. Judge Neave disagreed but asked for a report on Nuu’s suitability for home detention anyway. He accepted that Nuu had been co-operative with the polce, and his family had taken him to the police station, but he believed a prison term would be imposed because there were two incidents and someone had been hurt.

Police posted images and made an appeal on Facebook after the robberies, and Nuu’s family then took him to the police station where he admitted being the ringleader.

He told police a friend had died recently and he had found things tough. He knew he would be caught for the robberies.

Nuu was armed with a hammer when he went to a dairy in Avonside, and an associate was armed with a knife. A third, unidentified, robber drove the car.

Huu demanded cigarettes and cash and got about $500 in the first robbery on January 8.

At another dairy in Bowhill Road on January 25, he and his associate went in and tried to rob the 21-year-old Chinese woman who became upset. She lay curled on the floor, but Huu swung the hammer causing a graze on her forearm.

When the woman’s mother came to her aid, the two robbers ran out and drove away, without taking anything.

Nuu’s alleged co-offender appears at court tomorrow.

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A judge has told Corrections it must work harder to protect a woman from sexual harassment by men doing community work while she completes her own sentence.

The woman’s continuing frustrations brought the case back to the Christchurch District Court today when she tried to have another sentence – such as a fine – imposed instead of the 150 hours of community work she is doing.

Defence counsel Linda Drummond explained that the 26-year-old woman found it difficult to do her community work on days when she was the only woman on the work gang, which travelled together in a van to the work site.

She said a man doing community work had threatened to expose his genitals to the woman, and another had suggested that she do the rest of her community work in a bikini.

The woman is doing a sentence for drink-driving and has so far completed 40 hours of her sentence.

She said she sometimes drove to the start point, but if she could see there were no other women among those in the work gang she just left for the day.

This had led to her being charged with several breaches of her sentence by Corrections.

The breaches have meant she is not regarded as reliable enough to do an agency placement, which means she could work under supervision doing other work away from a work gang.

Judge Raoul Neave considered her application today but decided that she should continue with her community work, rather than be fined instead. The other alternative was a community detention sentence.

However, if problems continue on the work gangs, a fine would be appropriate notwithstanding her history. A fine could be imposed “if Corrections continue to fail to keep her safe from harassment”, he said.

In fairness, he did not want to consider imposing the more serious community detention sentence. “She should not be punished for failures by Corrections.”

If there was more harassment, a new application to review the sentence could be made, he said. “However, there must be some substance to them (the woman’s claims). If they are just devices to avoid the balance of the sentence, a dim view will be taken.”

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