Chicken charge after backyard ‘bloodbath’
When a charge of assault using a chicken as a weapon came up, it sounded like it was going to be one of court’s funny moments. It wasn’t.
Even experienced Judge Stephen O’Driscoll said he had never seen a charge like that.
But then defence counsel Kiran Paima described the crime scene as a backyard “bloodbath”.
The Christchurch District Court was told about an incident on July 28 which involved nothing but victims – except perhaps for one out-of-control dog.
Before the court was Sean Brian Unwin, a 49-year-old solo dad from Christchurch’s suburb of Richmond, who took great pride in the flock of chickens that lived in his yard.
A builder arrived to work on the property next door. His dog escaped from his car, jumped the fence, and took to the chickens.
Unwin then arrived and found the scene of carnage. Mr Paima said Unwin’s family including his grand daughter were upset and “there was a bloodbath in the back yard.”
There was a heated exchange of words with the dog’s owner, and then it got physical with Unwin brandishing a dead chicken, and hitting him with it.
The police originally charged Unwin with assault using a chicken as a weapon, and using some very robust offensive language.
Only a few days after the incident, the dog owner wrote a letter saying he didn’t want Unwin prosecuted, and he was sorry about the loss of the chickens. He accepted that he didn’t have his dog under effective control.
Meanwhile, Unwin appeared in court where he pleaded not guilty and was remanded for a case review hearing. Away from the courts, negotiations were under way.
By the time the case arrived at that case review hearing, police prosecutor Sergeant Jeff Kay agreed that there was some wriggle room available on the charges.
He told Judge O’Driscoll that the police would agree to make it an ordinary assault charge – taking poultry pummeling out of the charge, but leaving it as part of the facts – and dropping the offensive language charge.
He also said the police didn’t think any penalty was warranted, and Unwin then pleaded guilty to the assault charge.
Judge O’Driscoll then considered the facts of the case and decided that Unwin would be convicted and ordered to come up for sentence in six months if called upon.
He noted that the two men regretted what had occurred, and had effectively sorted it out between them, so no restorative justice meeting would be held.
“Nothing I can say or do can change what has occurred,” said Judge O’Driscoll. “The victim has apologised for what happened. It was unintentional, but it did happen, and you over-reacted.”
“Yes, I did,” Unwin agreed.
“I hope you will both now be able to put this behind you,” said the judge.
Category: Focus
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