July 22, 2011

Man admits weapons charge

By David Clarkson at Christchurch Men's Prison

A man has admitted his part in a weapons incident that led to Linwood Avenue being closed for an hour while the bomb disposal squad checked out a replica grenade.

Reece William Janetins Skipper got 60 hours of community work added to a sentence he is already serving and a warning from Christchurch District Court Judge Colin Doherty that he better do the hours or he would be jailed.

Skipper, a 33-year-old unemployed man from Casebrook, appeared at a court sitting inside Christchurch Men?s Prison, where he has been in custody since his arrest on July 7. He pleaded guilty to charges of hindering the police and unlawful possession of two metal batons.

Skipper accepts that he should not have had the batons with him in public and he denies that they were concealed ? he said he was carrying them in the inside pockets of his hooded sweatshirt. He told the court they were Filipino fighting sticks which he used for training.

He said he was stopped by the police because the person he was with was going to be searched and questioned over an earlier altercation in a fish and chip shop.

?I ended up with seven police officers on me,? he told the judge.

Both men ended up charged with weapons offences. The case against the alleged co-offender is going to a post-committal conference on September 9. He remains in custody.

Neither man has been charged over the replica grenade that the police found during the search. The road was closed for about an hour while it lay on a median strip before it was checked by the bomb disposal squad and found to be harmless.