“Thuggery” came “out of the blue”

A District Court judge told a Netherby man he would not discharge him without conviction for his act of “thuggery”.

Steven Palavi, 19, had assaulted a man at a local petrol station in October.

Lawyer Gretchen Hart said the defendant would like to apply for a discharge without conviction, but wanted the matter to be dealt with and out of the courts on Monday completely.

She said he was also willing to make an emotional harm payment.

“Well I’m not going to [give a] discharge without conviction today,” Judge Neave said.

“For this piece of thuggery, he’d have to have dotted every I and crossed every T for the court to even consider it.”

Palavi had been at the petrol station when he crossed paths with the victim, who was unknown to him.

When the victim tried to walk away from Palavi, he punched him in the side of his face “utterly out of the blue,” the court heard.

“He curled into a ball and you continued to punch him while on the ground.”

The victim tried to stand up but was kneed in the face.

The assault lasted around 15 seconds, and resulted in a cut lip.

“It's a miracle that it wasn't an awful lot worse… the repeated and sustained nature of the attack, blows to the head.

“He’s found the experience to be utterly traumatic.”

Neave addressed Palavi ahead of giving his decision.

“This was a serious and extremely unpleasant assault.

“Those within your world speak really highly of you.

“Clearly there are issues with anger… and alcohol may also play a role.”

Palavi was sentenced to 12 months of supervision, with a condition to complete any probation-ordered programmes, and ordered to make an emotional harm payment of $500.

“Extremely unpleasant” offending

A Rakaia man who sent emails containing “racist remarks” and homophobic messages to Mt Hutt Ski field staff was sentenced in court.

Zak Dylan Charles Moodie, 39, pleaded guilty to using digital content to cause harm last year.

The incident arose after Moodie, a “passionate skier” was asked to leave the field after concerns about his driving on the way up.

He sent an apology email to the staff afterwards, but followed that up with several messages which contained racist and homophobic content.

Moodie’s sentencing had been put off as the previous judge had needed to resolve an issue, Judge Neave said.

“I believe it was a breach of bail conditions,” lawyer Jennifer North said.

“It was more than that,” Neave said, reading the documentation; “it was further offending.”

He said there was a suggestion of extra offending, but no one had evidence to back that statement.

“Police don’t have anything further on their profile.

“If police are not in a position to confirm that, I will have to ignore it.”

Neave also said he was “not particularly happy with how the defendant seems to be picking and choosing what he wants to do as a sentence.”

“The offending was extremely unpleasant,” he said to Moodie.

“There’s enough of that sort of rubbish going on in the world without you adding to it.”

Both Neave and North agreed alcohol had played a role in Moodie’s offending.

Moodie was convicted, sentenced to 12 months of supervision, with conditions to take part in any programmes advised by probation, and ordered to make an emotional harm payment of $500.

Drink driver not sentenced

Christchurch man Robert Wikohika, 24, was charged with drink driving.

He pleaded guilty but Judge Neave was unsure how to sentence him.

“He doesn’t actually have a vehicle,” lawyer Tiffany McRae said.

Wikohika works on a dairy farm outside of town, but was allegedly not earning, consistent, assured income.

“He’s working six days a week,” Neave said.

“If he’s not earning, then I think MBIE would have something to say about that.

“If the employer is manipulating the situation to that extent, it’s the employer that need prosecuting.”

He asked for Wikohika’s situation to be looked into and rescheduled him to appear in April.

“I hope probation would cast an eye over that, because something’s not right.”

Weapons possession

A man from Hinds with a number of firearm offences will be sentenced in Christchurch.

Mark Louis Aguila, 44, had seven charges of unlawfully carrying a firearm, two of unlawful possession and two for owning ammunition.

Lawyer Jennifer North said he had other “more severe” charges awaiting pleas in the Christchurch courts.

“They are of a similar nature.”

“One imagines the same problem is at the heart of both sets of offending,” Judge Raoul Neave said, without revealing what the issue might be.

North asked the Ashburton charges be sent to Christchurch to be dealt with all at once.

Neave granted that and remanded Aguila on continued bail conditions until his Christchurch date.

Drink driving

Hampstead man Hemi Witehira, 51, pleaded guilty to refusing to take a breath alcohol test.

Witehira had alcohol in his system before getting behind the wheel, and while his alcohol reading wasn’t high, he had been on a zero alcohol licence since 2022.

“On a zero alcohol licence, he shouldn’t have been drinking at all,” Judge Neave said.

“And the fact that it is a third [drink driving offence] elevates its seriousness,” lawyer Tiffany McRae said.

She said he only asked his sentence wouldn’t prevent him from taking time out of his week for his daughter.

He wanted to be able to watch her netball games and “spend time with her on his days off.”

“It is only autumn, so he’s got time to get a good deal of community work in before the netball season starts,” Judge Neave said.

Neave convicted Witehira, sentenced him to 100 hours of community work and imposed the alcohol interlock sentence.

That means he’s disqualified from driving for 28 days, then is able to apply for an alcohol interlock licence and must install an interlock into his car for a year.

For three years after that, he must drive on a zero alcohol licence.

Driving on the wrong side

Netherlands national Roy Van Aalst, 51, pleaded guilty to careless vehicle use causing injury.

He had come to New Zealand with his partner and was driving the pair around Canterbury.

But while driving towards Ashburton, “nature, if you like, took over,” lawyer Paul Bradford said.

Van Aalst had “driven on the wrong side of the road momentarily, causing injury to [his] partner and causing an accident,’ Judge Neave read from the summary of facts.

“Not used to driving on the right (correct) side of the road I take it?” he said to the defendant.

Police sought $3200 - $2000 for insurance excess and 1200 for employee coverage for the victim in the other car, who’d had to take a small amount of time off of work after the crash.

“Isn’t that [an] ACC [matter]?” Neave said.

He convicted Van Aalst, ordered him to make a payment of $3000 and disqualified him from driving for six months.