Sex charges to be fought
A KING Country man has denied five charges of sexually assault against a girl aged between 12 and 16, across a four-year period.
He cannot be named by King Country News because the victim has automatic name suppression.
“Given it is a small community, anyone who knows him will know her,” police prosecutor Baden Hilton said in court.
The man has elected a trial by jury.
Car smasher sentenced
DURING the sentencing of Wiremu Emery, Judge Brett Crowley heard how his personal circumstances had settled and he was now living a quiet life with no ongoing issues.
The 38-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to smashing the windows of a car while a person was sitting in it and was sentenced to serve four months’ community detention and nine months’ supervision.
Judge Crowley told Emery that similar offending would usually incur a sentence of home detention, but he agreed with a favourable pre-sentence report that recommended supervision and community detention as an appropriate penalty.
Emery’s lawyer, Gaye Gray, said her client accepted he shouldn’t have done what he did, and he welcomed a sentence of supervision to get the tools to be able to manage his anger in future.
The judge told Emery it was clear he over-reacted by taking a baseball bat to every window on the almost 30-year-old Toyota Corolla.
“But that’s easy to say in a courtroom with hindsight.”
Emery didn’t necessarily mean to injure the man inside the car, Judge Crowley said, but he showed reckless disregard for the victim’s safety.
Charges denied
KĀWHIA man Jamon Tati Martin-Maru entered not guilty pleas to three charges of intentional damage.
He has elected to defend the charges at trial in front of a judge alone.
Pleas changed
AFTER discussions with his lawyer about the legal definition of assault, Ōtorohanga man Raymond Charles Taiawa pleaded guilty to four charges relating to an altercation in October last year.
Taiawa had previously pleaded not guilty to charges of intentionally impeding normal breathing, threatening to kill, assault with a butter knife and assault with intent to injure.
New Zealand law defines assault in the Crimes Act 1961 as the act of intentionally applying or attempting to apply force to another person.
Threatening to apply force to another person, by acting or gesturing in a way that causes the victim to believe they would go through with it is also considered a form of assault.
In Taiawa’s case, the 30-year-old pointed a butter knife towards his victim’s stomach as if he was going to stab it, according to a portion of the police summary of facts read by the judge in court.
Under New Zealand law, that is classed as assault.
Now with new legal representation, lawyer Andrea Jones, Taiawa pleaded guilty to all four charges.
He is set to be sentenced in May.
Guilt admitted
IN his first time in court, 21-year-old Te Kūiti man Evaan Carlos Kawhena pleaded guilty to a charge of common assault. He is due to be sentenced in May.
Towed driver keeps licence
A MAN caught behind the wheel of a vehicle being towed – while he was disqualified from driving – will keep his licence after a successful Section 94 application.
Jason Harry Tukuteihu Hetet had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of driving while disqualified, one being the towed vehicle and the other being when he drove to get medication for his unwell daughter.
Section 94 of the Land Transport Act allows judges to not disqualify offenders from driving on the basis of their circumstances, how effective previous disqualifications have been, what the likely effect of a further disqualification would be, and the interests of the public.
Judge Crowley decided under the auspices of the section that it was appropriate not to disqualify the 37-year-old Te Kūiti resident.
Hetet originally lost his licence for accruing too many demerit points.
He will serve 50 hours of community work.
