September 06, 2012

Custody remand after youth abuses jury

By David Clarkson

The Crown opposed bail for a 20-year-old who pointed and swore at the jury?after they convicted him on sex charges.

The unemployed youth, Winara Elijah Francis Haimona Samuel, was in tears and near collapse today ? the day after the verdicts were delivered ? when Christchurch District Court Judge Brian Callaghan remanded him in custody for sentence.

With him was Samuel Timothy Jonas, an unemployed 28-year-old, who was convicted on the same charges and will also stay in custody for sentence at the same time on October 29.

They were found guilty at the end of a three-day trial of attempted sexual connection and sexual connection with a girl aged 14.

The incident involved the pair meeting the girl, who was in her school uniform, buying vodka and sharing it with her ? she drank three or four cans of pre-mix ? and then going to Bromley Park with her.

At the park, the three locked themselves in a toilet cubicle, undressed the girl and had oral sex with her and unsuccessfully attempted to have intercourse.

The offending was interrupted by the police knocking on the door of the toilet cubicle.

The girl gave evidence at the trial about the incident which took place on September 27, 2011.

Judge Callaghan said he had heard Samuel say something when the jury gave its verdicts but he was writing at the time and did not see any gestures.

Crown prosecutor Marcus Zintl said he had been told about the incident by court staff and the police officer in charge of the case who had seen what happened.

?The Crown submits that the behaviour of the accused Samuel after the verdicts, in finger point and swearing, was wholly inappropriate,? he said. ?It was something that the jury should not have been subjected to.?

He said bail was inappropriate and not in the interests of justice for either man.

Defence counsel Carol Morgan for Jonas, and Colin Eason for Samuel, sought release on bail for both men saying that they believed imprisonment was not an inevitable sentence.

Judge Callaghan gave both the men a first-strike warning under the Government?s three-strikes law which imposes heavier sentences on repeat violent offenders.

He called for pre-sentence reports which would consider their suitability for home detention but he believed prison sentences were likely. The men can expect no sentence reductions for guilty pleas since they took the case to trial.

Judge Callaghan said Jonas had nine pages listing his previous convictions and he had a history of offending while on bail.

He said Samuel was younger but had convictions for failing to answer bail, and had committed some offences while on bail.

Both men appeared upset when they were remanded in custody. They had been held in custody overnight after the verdicts, to settle a sentencing date and order the necessary reports.