Two a penny

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Police have arrested two men who allegedly stopped a car in Waikato and beat and kidnapped the driver for cash.

The victim was driving on Gordonton Rd, towards Hamilton on October 1, when he crashed into a car that did an illegal U-turn front of his vehicle, Detective Inspector Russell Le Prou said.

When he checked if the occupants of the other car were hurt he was set upon by a group of men armed with softball bats.

The victim was told the group took the money as a form of reparation or “anger money” before they released him, Mr Le Prou said.

They beat him, took his ATM cards, then held him at a close toby property while others drove off to take $1300 from his bank account.”

Officers from the armed offenders squad executed two search warrants in Taupiri and Morrinsville, because of the need to stamp out serious, unprovoked, violent behaviour, Mr Le Prou said.

“They seem to have been quite brazen about it, even informing their victim there were no hard feelings and that they were in the business of selling car parts should he want to repair his vehicle. .

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Further arrests and charges were likely, Mr Le Prou said

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A top New Zealand entertainer tried to force a young woman to perform a sex act, a court has heard.

The identity of the man will remain a secret after judge Eddie Paul granted him interim name suppression at the Auckland District Court today.

In August, the man pled guilty to one charge of performing an indecent act with intent to insult.

The court heard submissions from media organisations who wished to challenge the man’s request for permanent name suppression.

The man was due to be sentenced this afternoon, however Judge Paul reserved his decision until next Friday.

“To say that this is a day of great disappointment and regret for [name suppressed] would be a great understatement,” Mr Mansfield said.

The man’s lawyer, Ron Mansfield, said his client was very remorseful.

The charge relates to an incident earlier this year when the man had been intoxicated and walking home. The man and two of the females went down an alleyway.

He had encountered three young women who had asked to kiss him. “She was taken by the head and her head moved down to his genitalia,” Mr Mansfield said.

The third female later followed the others down the alleyway and approached him from behind.

Mr Mansfield’s client acknowledged he had acted inappropriately.

Some time after that the young woman contacted police.

The man had pled guilty at an early stage, had offered to pay reparations of $5000 to the victim and offered to take part in a restorative justice meeting with her.

The man had pled guilty at an early stage, had offered to pay reparations of $5000 to the victim and offered to take part in a restorative justice meeting with her.

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The Labour weekend road toll has climbed to five following the death of a woman struck by a bus full of people north of Wellington earlier today.

The woman died at the scene after she was hit by the bus on Lyttleton Ave in Porirua, police said.

The death brought the holiday weekend road toll to five – one greater than Labour Day weekend last year, when four people were killed. .

The rider was travelling with a group of friends and speed may have been a contributing factor, police said.

A motorcyclist died close to Greymouth yesterday after crashing into a bridg e on State Highway 6 at Coal Creek.

Two women were killed in a head-on crash close to Taupo on Saturday.

Investigations were ongoing.

The car’s 79-year-old driver died at the scene while the 53-year-old passenger of the four-wheel-drive died shortly after she was taken to Taupo Hospital.

A car crossed the centre line on State Highway 1 at Five Mile Bay and collided with a four-wheel-drive vehicle shortly before 3pm.

Meanwhile, police have named the man who was killed when a four-wheel-drive rolled into a river off the Maungatapu Track in Nelson’s Maitai Valley yesterday, injuring two others.

The driver escaped with only minor injuries.

Emergency services were alerted to the crash at 5.

He was 16-year-old Tod Woodman of Richmond.

.40pm by one of the vehicle’s occupants, who ran from the scene to get help

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One of the worst economic years in the New Zealand Government’s history will be confirmed tomorrow when the final government accounts for the June year are released.

At the beginning of the financial year Treasury was still predicting an operating surplus of $2.This was already down from the $7.56 billion for the fiscal year.In hindsight the signs of rot were starting to show last July with Treasury predicting that cash surpluses would be a thing of the past in the years ahead due to a slowing economy and cuts to income tax.39 billion predicted last December.Finance Minister Bill English said the Crown accounts would tell a story of deficits and losses on investments, “a picture we’re familiar with”.After that the world was hit first by a credit crisis which brought on a global recession, which came on top of the domestic recession already under way. .This would include a $10 billion to $12 billion reversal in the operating surplus to around a deficit of around $9 billion.While the Government’s main investment vehicles – the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, ACC and the Government Superannuation Fund – have all recorded improving fortunes recently, this is not expected to make much difference to the final books for 2008/2009 tomorrow.

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A Picton man has been jailed for six years after he admitted raping his 15-year-old niece.

Permanent name suppression was ordered when the 21-year-old-man was sentenced in Blenheim District Court today.

Judge Tony Zohrab said the February 2 offence had had a huge and lasting impact on the victim, who had always trusted him as a fun, favourite uncle.

The offence occurred when the complainant was staying with her biological mother in Invercargill where the defendant, her mother’s adopted brother, was also staying.

The name suppression was for her protection. .

He had come home at 2am after working late, then drinking with friends and climbed into a fold-out sofa in the lounge where she was sleeping.

Spoken to by police in May, the defendant claimed little recollection of the incident but accepted responsibility and made an early guilty plea.

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That and his youth were mitigating factors, the judge said, reducing a potential nine-year sentence to six years

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An Auckland man is in custody following an alleged jealous rampage in which he reportedly attacked his ex-girlfriend then damaged her new partner’s motorcycle.

The first incident happened when the 38-year-old man appeared at his ex-girlfriend’s workplace in Wiri, Manukau, at 7.

He approached her outside and was abusive, threatening to smash her car with an iron bar before, it was believed, kicking her in the stomach, Ms Clarke said. .

He yelled for the man to come outside and when he failed to appear, attacked his motorbike, Ms Clarke said.

The man then drove to her new partner’s work, having last week allegedly threatened to kill him.

By this point the man knew police were examining for him and he drove to his home in Takanini, Ms Clarke said.

A staff member at the site told police they saw what looked like a gun in the man’s pocket.”

A helicopter was sent to search for him and spotted his car in Huntly.

“Police contacted him, telling him to hand himself in (and) he’s been aggressive with police.

They did not find a gun. Police caught up with the man and took him for questioning. He has been charged with assault, threatening to kill, breaching a protection order, wilful damage and possessing an offensive weapon.

He was being held in custody ahead of an appearance in Manukau District Court tomorrow.

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Scientists have identified two powerful antibodies that point to a new target for an Aids vaccine, by probing the blood of a rare group of people who contract HIV but develop resistance. .

They are the first to be identified in more than a decade, and the first to be identified in an HIV-infected but otherwise resistant person from a developing country.

“I think this is a very significant finding,” says Prof Purcell, who heads the Molecular Virology Laboratory at the University of Melbourne.

Commenting on the research, Melbourne-based Associate Professor Damian Purcell said the discovery had pointed to a new and potentially broadly available “chink” in the Aids virus’ armour.”

Work towards an HIV vaccine has continued for decades, and its success hinges on finding an unchanging part of the virus which otherwise mutates furiously inside the body.

“And it’s actually a foretaste for what we’re going to require over the next couple of years in order to make an effective HIV vaccine.

The search is centred on a rare group of people referred to as “elite neutralisers”, because while they had contracted HIV they appeared to live without ill effect.

They settled on a sample from an HIV-resistant Kenyan man, and the unique antibodies found in his blood were shown to work against a part of the virus not considered for potential vaccine application before.

The IAVA research, published in the journal Science, took in 1,800 blood samples from HIV-infected people across the African continent but also from Australia, Thailand, the UK and USA.

“They chose an elite neutralising patient in Africa, and the antibodies they plucked out were able to neutralise viruses from Australia, from USA, from Asia,” Prof Purcell says.

It also worked against a range of different HIV strains, Prof Purcell says, raising hopes of finding “the chink in the armour, the susceptible target that seems to be across all of these (HIV) viruses”.

Prof Purcell also says the effort to develop an HIV vaccine could continue for another five to 10 years but “at least we now know what we’re aiming at, the target has become more visible”.

It was also “very potent” compared to earlier antibody discoveries.

Further developments in HIV will be discussed at the 2009 Australasian Sexual Health Conference, to be held back-to-back with The Australasian HIV/Aids Conference 2009, in Brisbane next week.

Further developments in HIV will be discussed at the 2009 Australasian Sexual Health Conference, to be held back-to-back with The Australasian HIV/Aids Conference 2009, in Brisbane next week

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New figures showing Kiwi teens racked up $40 million in unpaid traffic fines in the past year alone have revived calls for tougher demerit penalties and a move away from issuing fines for traffic violations.

The teen tearaways include a 16-year-old Dunedin boy who received 158 fines in the year to June, making him one of the country’s worst teen traffic offenders.

The second biggest outstanding amount is is owed by an 18-year-old, also in Dunedin, who received 119 infringements and owed $38,811, followed by a Christchurch 15-year-old who owed $24,990 on 88 fines. According to Ministry of Justice figures released to the Sunday Star-Times, by the end of the previous month the teenager owed $49,123 in fines, which he has been paying off weekly.

Their fines are among 51,594 issued to drivers aged 14-19 during the same period, and totalling $55. Their offences include dangerous driving, driver licence offences, defective vehicles or no warrant of fitness, parking violations, not wearing a seatbelt and speeding. Of that, 56 percent was being paid by arrangement and 27 percent had been “resolved” either by payment, alternative sentences or being written-off.8m.

AA Driver Education Foundation chairman Mike Noon says the examples show “the current system is failing”.

Experts say the massive totals owed would be nearly impossible to pay off for teenagers, who “may be working at McDonald’s”, and that the only effective penalty for young traffic violators is the threat of forcing them off the road.

The Vehicle Confiscations and Seizures Bill (or “anti-cruising” measures) and Courts and Criminal Matters Bill look set to be passed into law by the end of the year and will give authorities greater powers to suspend driver licences and confiscate cars. . I think it’s likely that there will be more provisions for vehicle confiscations and possibly even crushing the vehicles of repeat dangerous offenders,” Noon says.

“There definitely is an interest in increasing demerit points; that is the way forward.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce says the bill would see fines for such breaches reduced from $400 to $100 and demerit points increased from 25 to 35.

And the Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill, which aims to rebalance penalties for breaches of the driver-licensing system, reaches its second reading in parliament next month. This reflects evidence that young drivers often ignore fines or get their parents to pay them,” Joyce says.

“We believe loss of license and loss of vehicle are much more powerful deterrents than fines particularly for young people and those involved with illegal street racing.

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LATEST:
Former New Zealand Olympic rower Rob Hamill has confronted his brother’s killer at the trial of former Khmer Rouge official Duch in Phnom Penh.

An emotional Hamill testified before the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh about the “incredible” impact the horrific death of his brother Kerry, 27, had on his family here – a “massive and unquantifiable impact”.

Hamill, former Olympic and long-distance rower, said he had waited a long time to confront his brother’s killer and to tell the story about the impact on his parents and siblings.

The New Zealander’s wife Rachel and their two-year-old son were in the packed public gallery as Hamill spoke for a full hour.

Hamill’s mother is now dead and his father is in a nursing home.

Duch, 66, has pleaded guilty to murder but the five judges – New Zealander Dame Silvia Cartwright, a French national and three Cambodians – will decide Duch’s innocence or guilt after hearing all the evidence.

Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch as he is known, the man responsible for Kerry Hamill’s death, was in court and listened impassively to Hamill’s testimony as it was translated.

Dame Silvia was in courtto hear Hamill, who was accepted as a civil party.

Crewman Stuart Glass, a Canadian was shot while Hamill and Briton John Dewhirst were interrogated and tortured for two months before being killed in Phnom Penh’s notorious Tuol Sleng Prison run by Duch.

Kerry Hamill was captured by the Khmer Rouge when the yacht on which he and friends were sailing strayed into Cambodian waters in August 1978.

Duch has pleaded the same defence as some of the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials after World War 2, maintaining he was simply carrying out orders and would have been shot had he not done so.

Thousands of Cambodians were killed at the prison.

He noted that Duch used the phrase “smash them”, words meaning prisoners were to be tortured and then killed.

Hamill said Duch had dehumanised himself “the way he did so many people”.

“I’ve wanted to smash Duch,” he said.

“I’ve wanted to smash Duch,” he said.

“We all live and die but the way my brother died it is just so abominable and simply [incomprehensible] and he led that, he created the system that inflicted this terrible, terrible crime on people. I mean what he did, he dehumanised himself… he dehumanised so many thousands of people and the way he did it,” he told told Radio New Zealand.

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An Auckland police officer has been suspended and may yet face criminal charges for allegedly leaking secret information from the national intelligence network to a criminal.

The constable has been stood down while an internal investigation takes place, the Weekend Herald reported.

The suspended constable is in a squad which targets “volume crime”, in particular burglaries, and had access to the police intelligence database.

The constable, who has been in the police for two years, was this week interviewed by staff from the force’s professional standards team, the newspaper reported.

He is alleged to have leaked sensitive information to help a known criminal to avoid arrest. But most have been non-sworn staff in call centres, not officers.

A small number of police staff have been charged with using the computer system to help friends and family to evade arrest. .

Police Minister Judith Collins has been briefed on the “serious allegations” but declined to comment as the inquiry was not finished.

“Police are investigating an allegation that information has been inappropriately disclosed by a police employee, and as the investigation is under way it would be inappropriate to comment further,” Mr Bush said.

The National Intelligence Application is a computer network that holds information on people’s criminal convictions and whether they are wanted by police or are a surveillance target.

Police Association president Greg O’Connor also declined to comment.

Police national headquarters figures show 33 police staff were caught making unauthorised checks of the National Intelligence Application since August 2007.

The system also gives police facts on criminals’ associates and their addresses. Nine of those later resigned. Nine of those later resigned