Damage offender pleads ‘guilty as’
File image. © Andrew Bardwell
Judge Phillip Moran took an over-enthusiastic offender in his stride when the No 2 District Court crossed by video-link to Christchurch Men’s Prison.
The offender shouting into the microphone at the prison was charged with intentional damage of a window.
He could not quite understand why he didn’t have a lawyer, but it turned out he had refused to talk to the duty solicitor.
So, he pleaded “guilty as” and agreed to pay for the $548 damage to the window.
He explained that he was drunk at the time.
He was still shouting into the microphone when Judge Moran imposed just the reparations for the damage as the penalty.
The man was shouting that he would pay it at $10 a week.
“If you had shut up you would have heard me say that,” said the judge.
The man went quiet, and seemed satisfied with that, and then the video-link was ended.
“This promises to be a good afternoon,” said the judge as he looked forward to the rest of the list of cases.
Category: Observations
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