Hands over mouth restricts breathing

Home detention and emotional harm reparation

Nathan Collier has been sentenced to nearly 10 months’ home detention on violence charges.

The 22-year-old was sentenced in Ōpōtiki District Court last week for charges of strangulation, threatening to kill, assaults police and possession of an offensive weapon.

Judge Louis Bidois said Collier put his hands over the mouth of the victim for about 10 seconds, restricting her breathing.

The victim was injured and scared, having been physically and emotionally impacted.

Collier was sentenced to nine-and-a-half months of home detention and six months of post detention conditions, to be served in Gisborne.

The judge dismissed an application to cancel Collier’s existing community work sentence.

He said Collier would need to complete his hours in Gisborne.

In addition to the home detention, Collier was ordered to pay $750 in emotional harm reparations.

He was remanded without plea to September 18 on charges of wounding with intent to injure, intentional damage, assault with a blunt instrument and assault with intent to injure.

On the latter charges, Collier was granted electronically monitored bail.

Firearm found in farm drum

Hamilton man Duet Walker, 51, has been sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment for being in the unlawful possession of a firearm.

The sentence is cumulative to a 10-month prison sentence he received in Hamilton District Court last Monday for unrelated driving charges.

Judge Bidois said police found the single barrel shotgun hidden in a drum on a farm after it was mentioned in a phone call Walker made from the prison.

The judge said phone calls made from New Zealand prisons were recorded and could be monitored.

Defence lawyer Duncan McWilliam said the firearm was used for livestock. Walker did not hold a firearms licence.

The offending did not qualify for a firearms prohibition order to be made.

Poaching denied

Ōpōtiki man Matthew Howe has pleaded not guilty to three charges relating to illegal hunting.

Howe was charged with entering agricultural land with intent to commit an imprisonable offence, discharge of a firearm, and theft by killing an animal.

He was remanded on bail to appear in Ōpōtiki District Court on October 2, the same day as a judge-alone trial is scheduled for other charges.

Horse theft denied

Zane Warren maintains a not guilty plea he entered to a charge of theft of livestock.

Lawyer Whare Hika said the issue was the legal ownership of the horse.

A hearing was scheduled for November 27.

Attendance excused

Eliah Te Hau’s attendance was excused last week and a case review hearing was scheduled in his absence.

Te Hau faces a charge of unlawfully getting into a motor vehicle.

Community work for breaches

An application to cancel Lovey Biddle’s intensive supervision sentence has been adjourned to September to monitor her ongoing compliance.

Biddle was sentenced last week for breaching intensive supervision three times.

She was sentenced to 80 hours’ community work.

Sentencing scheduled for drug charges

Rongo Bennett has been remanded to September for sentencing on drugs and firearms charges.

Last week police amended a charge of supplying methamphetamine to one of offering to sell meth.

Bennett pleaded guilty to the amended charge and possession of meth for the purpose of supply, and two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm.

She was remanded on bail to appear for sentencing on September 18.

Trial to be rescheduled

Caine Punakai was remanded in custody to yesterday to make a bail application.

Punakai was due to go to trial in Ōpōtiki last week for charges of strangulation and assault on a person in a family relationship, but it had to be rescheduled due to the judge being unavailable.

He appeared from custody due to his bail address falling through.

Assault admitted

Tehirere Redmond was directed to participate in restorative justice after pleading guilty to charges of common assault and possession of an offensive weapon.

He was remanded to appear for sentencing in September.

Farmer makes ‘wrong decision’

Waiotahe farmer John Fleming has been fined $500 for driving down to Whakatāne Heads to watch boats come up the river.

Fleming is indefinitely disqualified from driving. He pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while disqualified last week – his third conviction of the type.

Lawyer Steve Franklin said the 74-year-old went to Whakatāne for supplies and then went to the Heads to watch the boats. He was stopped by police on Muriwai Drive.

The lawyer said Fleming knew he shouldn’t be driving, but the reality was that he needed to due to his remote location, living on a 240-hectare farm.

“He’s not a bad man, but he does make the odd wrong decision,” Mr Franklin said.

Police prosecutor Stephanie Tattersall said it was a qualifying offence that could justify seizure of the vehicle.

Mr Franklin opposed the seizure, saying the ute was integral to the defendant’s farming operation. The vehicle was not seized.

In addition to the fine, Fleming was disqualified from driving for 12 months.

Interim name suppression granted

A Whakatāne man accused of three indecent assaults of a young girl has been granted interim name suppression until his next court appearance.

The court heard that the defendant was arrested last week and police opposed bail.

Court documents showed that the offending was alleged to have happened in 2023.

Interim name suppression was sought and granted on the grounds that defence lawyer Leonard Hemi required more time to speak to his client’s partner, given her employment in the education sector.

The man was remanded in custody to appear in mid-August.

Car, handcuffs stolen

Ōpōtiki man Dios Moore, 32, has been sentenced to 16 months’ prison for a raft of offending against multiple different victims.

Moore’s convictions included unlawfully taking a Mazda Titan truck, burglary, unlawfully getting into a Ford Mondeo car, theft of police handcuffs, being unlawfully inside an enclosed residential yard, escaping police custody, breaching release conditions, driving dangerously and intentional damage.

He pleaded guilty at a previous hearing after receiving a sentencing indication.

Judge Bidois said Moore was assessed as being a medium risk of reoffending and lacked pro-social role models.

He said no address was available for a community-based sentence.

The judge said Moore had not completed any rehabilitation nor did he have any motivation to do so.

During discussions of reparations, lawyer Whare Hika said a fence damaged by Moore had been repaired within a couple of days of it being broken.

He said Moore was remorseful for his actions and took responsibility.

Moore was sentenced to 16 months’ prison and six months’ release conditions. Leave for substitution of the sentence was refused.

Reparations of $1610 for the Mazda Titan and $101 for the handcuffs were ordered.

Suspended sentence

Te Harawera Irimana was sentenced to come up if called upon for a period of six months after he admitted breaching his release conditions.

Duty lawyer Steve Franklin said Irimana neglected the release conditions because he was focused on a family member who had recently undergone surgery.

Probation supported the suspended sentence.

Bail granted

Raiden Welsh has been granted bail to an address in Auckland with an overnight curfew.

He pleaded guilty last week to one charge of breaching supervision. A second count was withdrawn.

Welsh maintained not guilty pleas to charges of contravening a protection order and assault on a person in a family relationship.

A judge-alone trial was scheduled in September.

‘Serious loss of self-control’

Hamilton man Darcy Waenga, 41, has been sentenced for a family land dispute that turned violent.

Waenga was sentenced to a combination of community detention, community work, supervision, emotional harm reparations and disqualification from driving.

His charges included common assault using rocks as a weapon, threatening to kill, driving dangerously on State Highway 35 in Waihau Bay and driving while disqualified on State Highway 35 in Raukokore.

Lawyer Jonathan Kay said the offending arose from a dispute over family land and displayed a “serious lack of self-control” by Waenga.

Mr Kay said the defendant was struck by the victim, a family member. They both got into their respective vehicles and drove away, with Waenga following the victim.

The victim stopped short and Waenga crashed into the back of him.

Judge Bidois said Waenga was a medium risk of reoffending, with a limited criminal history, and was motivated to engage with rehabilitative programmes.

He said Waenga reported binge drinking and consuming cannabis almost daily.

Home detention was the recommended sentence, but Mr Kay asked the judge to step back from it.

Waenga was sentenced to three months’ community detention at an address in the King Country with a curfew from 8pm-7am. He must complete 100 hours’ community work and nine months’ supervision.

The judge ordered Waenga to pay $400 in emotional harm reparations and disqualified him from driving for 12 months.

Charges denied

Ōpōtiki woman Kaylene Moore has denied a charge of common assault.

She was remanded to October for a case review hearing on the charge.

A trial date was set in November for other charges of wilful trespass and offensive behaviour.

Prison sentence

Ōpōtiki man Fraser Pope, 30, has been sentenced to four months’ prison for three petrol drive-offs, two driving charges and three breaches.

Pope pleaded guilty last week to two counts of driving while disqualified, three thefts, and breaching his bail, community work and supervision.

The roofer had been in custody for two weeks prior to his hearing.

Lawyer Jonathan Kay sought that Pope’s community work sentence was not cancelled, because the defendant was trying to complete it.

Judge Bidois cancelled both the community work and supervision sentences.

Pope was ordered to pay $130 total in reparations for the petrol drive-offs.

Shoplifter sentenced

Aztec Te Kuru-Reid, 32, has been sentenced for shoplifting an almost $200 socket set from Farmlands Ōpōtiki.

Judge Bidois sentenced Te Kuru-Reid to 60 hours’ community work and ordered $192.50 in reparations.