June 01, 2010

Farmer denies sending threats to PM, officials

By David Clarkson

The crown alleges an Oxford farmer, Mark Stafford Feary, sent a fax to Prime Minister John Key, saying, ?It?s killing time.?

The 53-year-old farmer is on trial in the Christchurch District Court where he denies 12 charges of sending faxes or letters to politicians and government officials threatening to cause grievous bodily harm, and two charges of threatening to kill the Prime Minister.

The threats were allegedly made in letters and faxes sent from his home address at Oxford in February 2009.

Two letters had a frame in gold paint in powder form which could spill out when someone opened them. The crown called a security officer at Parliament as a witness who said they were initially treated as though they were a chemical or biological threat.

Crown prosecutor Tim Mackenzie said police who went to Feary?s house found the originals of all the documents. The faxes had the print-outs of the sending confirmation slip stapled to them.

Mr Mackenzie told Judge Raoul Neave and the jury that Feary was a farmer at Oxford who had had some issues with the government for some time over the lease of his farm.

He said faxes began arriving in Wellington making threats, and he alleged that when the threats were not taken seriously, Feary began to threaten to cause grievous bodily harm. He finally sent faxes to the Prime Minister, with one stating: ?It?s killing time.?

The list of people who were receiving threats had grown steadily longer as the series of messages continued. In the end ? as referred to in the 14 charges ? they included the Prime Minister, Solicitor-General, Commissioner of Crown Lands, Commissioner of Police, Minister of Police, Minister of Justice, Attorney-General, Leader of the Maori Party, Leader of ACT, and the Leader of the United Future Party.

Feary is conducting his own defence in the two-day trial. He asked witnesses about the letters arriving containing gold paint and whether they were regarded as harmless. He was told they had triggered a security alert and emergency services had been called.

The trial was told that the documents had been signed ?Mark Feary? and had his cellphone number on them. Mr Mackenzie said a fingerprint expert would say Feary?s prints were on the originals. A police handwriting expert would say the signatures were very consistent, but were a little too basic to be certain they were signed by the same hand.

A worker at Parliament said it was the first time she had seen threats arriving where the sender had included his name, signature, and phone number.

The trial is continuing.