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Guilty verdicts in alleyway bashing trial
David Michael Witchall has been warned that home detention has been ruled out by his criminal history, after a jury found him guilty of taking part in a central Christchurch bashing.
The 20-year-old is to be sentenced on June 15 after being convicted and remanded in custody on a charge of intentionally injuring a 15-year-old in an incident in Kivers Lane, which runs from Cashel Street to Lichfield Street.
The jury found Witchall not guilty on a charge of kidnapping, but did convict the youth who was tried with him on that charge. The youth, who has interim name suppression, was remanded to a detention centre for sentencing on the same date.
Crown prosecutor Deirdre Elsmore had accused the pair of detaining the 15-year-old in one of the bicycle storage cages along the lane where he was kicked and beaten unconscious over about an hour one night last September.
The defence said the pair had no intentions to injure or detain the youth.
Defence counsel Colin Eason spoke to the jury about the accused youth?s ?social circumstances?.
?People on the streets have a rough and ready approach to the way they live, and the way they solve their problems,? he said. ?A physical response to people?s behaviour is accepted in their life.?
Counsel for Witchall, Peter Dyhrberg, said Witchall had told police he had not intended to hurt the victim so badly, and there was real doubt that he intended to confine the youth in the cage.
A third man, Hautapu Paikea Toka, 18, has already pleaded guilty to intentionally injuring and kidnapping and has been remanded for sentence on the same day.
