Two a penny

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A bank customer is being praised by Hamilton police after he responded to a call for help and chased a robber today.

Police said the robber, believed to be unarmed, demanded money from a teller in the Hamilton East branch of the BNZ about 10.

As the robber fled with his money, the teller called for help and a man in a queue behind the robber chased him. .

Detective Dion Bennett said it was a gutsy call by the customer.

He pursued the robber down Grey St but lost him when he turned down an alleyway to the rear of Sacred Heart school, said police.”

Mr Bennett said the customer’s first reaction was impressive.

“He realised something was wrong and turns and gives chase, it was really pleasing.”

However, he said police were also wary about urging people to chase offenders because someone could get hurt.

“We take our hat off to him.

The robber was a medium built Maori or Polynesian, between 180-185cm tall.

Details of how much money the man got were not available.

Mr Bennett said anyone with information on the robber could call him direct on (07) 834 9476. He wore a dark top and dark track pants.

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The Auckland actor shot by police in suburban Auckland lured officers to the scene with false claims of domestic violence before advancing on attending officers with a meat cleaver and two knives.

Rob Mokaraka, 36, was shot by a police officer in Smale Street, Pt Chevalier on Monday afternoon.

Detective Superintendent Rod Drew said police telephone records had revealed the man enticed police to his home after making false reports of a violent domestic incident involving a man armed with a concealed gun.

“After some verbal interaction with police he advanced into the street and threatened police who had responded to the 111 calls, with what appeared to be a firearm wrapped in a towel.

“It is now apparent that, having given a distinctive description of the ‘angry man’ he said was armed with a concealed firearm, the man dressed himself to fit the description and waited for police to arrive,” Mr Drew said. . When he refused to stop, an officer fired one shot and the man was disarmed. He is in a stable condition and is expected to remain in hospital for a week or more.

The officer who fired the shot is expected to complete a formal interview today, as are the other officers involved with the incident. A decision regarding charges will be made in the next day or so. He has not been stood down from duty. The officer is off work while he completes the full medical and psychological de-briefing required by the Police Trauma Policy.

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The investigation continues

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Setting a trial date for a man charged with murdering Grant “Granite” Adams has been postponed for two months as he is dying.

The case for Tauranga man Brett Michael Ashby, 50, was called in the High Court at Rotorua before Justice Judith Potter yesterday when his lawyer explained he was terminally ill.
“He is terminally ill.
Lawyer Elizabeth Hall said her client was under hospice care at home and it was likely he would not survive to stand trial and asked for a two-month stand down. . . . it is a critical situation with his declining health getting worse. If he is alive [in two months] it would be something of a surprise,” she said. .
It is believed Mr Adams was a methamphetamine user with gang connections
Mr Adams’ remains were found in June 2007 in a grave dug with a digger.
Police allege Ashby, a company director, shot Mr Adams in the upper back and head with a semi-automatic pistol before dumping his body at Wairakei, close to Taupo, in December 2005.
Another Tauranga man, Craig Cullen, 44, was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention on April 23, last year, on a charge of being an accessory after the fact of murder.
Justice Potter adjourned the case to be recalled in the High Court at Rotorua on June 4, for a trial date to be set if Ashby was still alive.
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A former ESR scientist says he found blood which could have come only from Laniet or Stephen Bain on David Bain’s socks.

Peter Cropp, now an independent forensic scientist, told the High Court in Christchurch hearing murder charges against David Bain, he had tested socks taken from David Bain on June 20, 1994, the day of the murder of the Bain family.Each had blood staining on the soles and sock one had two stains visible on the sole’s edge. He had received the socks on August 4, 1994 and labelled them sock one and sock two. Blood grouping tests showed the blood was either from Laniet or Stephen Bain. The droplets had quite clear edges and the stains had soaked right through the material suggesting the blood was more likely to have dropped onto the socks than to have adhered to the sock by stepping into blood. He gave evidence yesterday of testing he carried out in 1994 of items taken from David Bain or from the Bain house.Cropp also told the court he could find no animal blood on the rifle used to shoot the Bain family.DNA tests showed all the blood spots tested on trackpants worn by Robin Bain were his own blood, the High Court was also told.The defence case is that David Bain fingerprints alleged to have been found on the rifle were placed there before the murders by a hand with animal blood on it.Two of the spots had a mix of DNA, one of which could have had a minor contribution from another Bain family member and the other had a minor contribution from someone outside the Bain family.Dr Stephen Gutowski, from the Victorian Forensic Services Centre (VFSC), said he tested the samples taken from the trackpants in 1997 and found all the samples contained Robin Bain’s DNA. His conviction was quashed by the Privy Council in 2007.Gutowski did his testing two years after David Bain’s first trial. Bain’s counsel Michael Reed has previously told the court that if blood from other members ofthe Bain family was found on Robin it would help to exonerate his client.The defence argues David Bain’s father Robin killed his wife and three children before turning his rifle on himself. He found human blood only on one part of the rifle, the sight.Nigel Hall, another scientist from the VFSC said he tested in 1997 samples taken from 13 areas of the rifle used in the killing.

During cross-examination Reed told Hentschel, who examined many items from the Bain house in 1994, that defence experts would say his lack of notes and diagrams of the examinations he carried out would be attacked as inadequate.

Retired ESR scientist Peter Hentschel today also gave evidence in the High Court trial of Bain.

Hentschel said he had relied on police officers in charge of each section of the Bain house to take notes and his recordings were of a standard used by ESR in 1994.

They would say, Reed said, that the shortcomings meant insufficient material was available for them to do proper reviews of the examinations.

Reed concentrated much of his cross-examination today on the murder weapon, a .

It would be different now, he said.

Hentschel examined the rifle in the week of the murders and said he had not made a diagram of where he saw four fingerprints because he relied on the fingerprint expert to do that.

Hentschel examined the rifle in the week of the murders and said he had not made a diagram of where he saw four fingerprints because he relied on the fingerprint expert to do that.

The Crown alleges the fingerprints were made by David Bain while the defence says the fingerprints were made by fingers covered in animal blood.

Nor had he made notes or made a diagram of where he saw smearing on the rifle which did not extend to the fingerprints, the retired scientist said.

Hentschel maintains the smearing over the rifle was “shielded” by the fingerprints.

He could not explain how tests done in 1997 found blood smearing between the fingerprints but the rifle must have been handled many times in the intervening three years, he said.

Hentschel agreed he had not made a diagram showing where he took a sample of blood from the firearm where the fingerprints were.

The sample was taken from smearing 5mm to 10mm from the fingerprints.

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Hentschel said he had not told the jury in David Bain’s trial he had taken the sample from the fingerprints themselves. .

When re-examined by Kieran Raftery for the Crown he said he found extensive smearing of blood on the butt of the rifle and its forearm.

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Almost 800 getting redundancy benefit

Tuesday, 24 February 2009

Nearly 800 families are already claiming support under a redundancy rescue package rushed through before Christmas – evidence that the recession is hurting people as the Government prepares to host a top-level jobs summit.
The package is expected to ease the financial pain for as many as 70,000 workers over two years.
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said yesterday there were 771 people getting some form of assistance under the package.
Low-income workers with families can get as much as $160 a week, on top of the unemployment or domestic-purposes benefit, under the scheme, introduced to help families cope with mortgage payments and other costs after redundancy. Ms Bennett said the payments were designed to give families "breathing space".
But the payments run out after 16 weeks, and the outlook for new jobs could be bleak, as unemployment continues to rise.
Papers prepared ahead of Friday's summit paint a bleak picture saying numbers on the unemployment benefit are likely to rise to 50,000 by October up from fewer than 20,000 early last year. . The Government is fielding a big contingent of ministers, including Mr Key and Finance Minister Bill English.
Nearly 200 of the country's top business leaders have so far signed up for the jobs summit in Auckland from companies including Telecom, Air New Zealand, Foodstuffs, Fletcher Building, Lion Nathan, Icebreaker, SkyCity, Fonterra and the major banks.

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Tortured Kiwi sailor’s family awaits justice

By JUDITH HUGHEY Thursday, 19 February 2009

MAARTEN HOLL/
ROB HAMILL: Looks forward to ‘some sort of justice’.

KAING GUEK EAV: Ran torture centre.
Now justice is close as the first United Nations-backed trial of one of the notorious Cambodian leaders gets under way in Phnom Penh.

Thirty years ago Kiwi trans-Atlantic rower Rob Hamill's brother suffered a cruel fate, tortured to death by the brutal Khmer Rouge after his yacht blew off course. He was sailing from Singapore to Bangkok with the yacht's co-owner Stuart Glass, from Canada, and the charterer, British man John Dewhirst.
Kerry Hamill was 28 when he was killed in 1978. This was where Mr Hamill, Mr Dewhirst and possibly 10 or more Westerners, among more than 10,000 Cambodians, were tortured and killed.
On the stand at the trial this week is prison chief "Duch" – real name Kaing Guek Eav – who ran Tuol Sleng, the former primary school that was turned into a torture centre and prison.
Mr Hamill, who represented New Zealand at the Olympics in 1996 and rowed the Atlantic Ocean, setting a world record with Phil Stubbs, plans to go to Cambodia for the trial once it gets under way. Mr Glass was killed when the yacht was captured. He has spent several years trying to find out what happened to his brother.
"We look forward to seeing some sort of justice as far as the family goes," Mr Hamill said."
Four Americans and two Australians are among the Westerners murdered by the Khmer Rouge. "We think the weather blew him off course and he got into territorial waters.
The Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S21, is now visited by most travellers to Phnom Penh.
The regime ruled Cambodia, which they renamed Democratic Kampuchea, from 1975 to 1979, when the Vietnamese gained control and forced them into hiding.
"Duch" – now 66 – is charged with overseeing the torture and extermination of more than 12,000 men, women and children at Tuol Sleng. Photographs taken by the Khmer Rouge of their captives are displayed alongside "confessions" to being CIA operatives. . He was formerly a maths teacher.

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Trio building up Wellington fan base

The Monday, 09 February 2009

MAARTEN HOLL/The
PHYSICAL GRAFFITI: Terence Turner (top) and Harley Durst are watched by Tiago Miranda as they bounce around buildings in Wellington’s Civic Centre in an exhibition of the French discipline of parkour.

They run up walls, bounce off balustrades, leap across roofs and all but defy gravity.
Spiderman-like exponents of the French discipline of parkour Harley Durst, Terence Turner and Tiago Miranda ran and bounced around the architectural features in Wellington's Civic Centre on Saturday.
They were the star act in New Zealand's first national parkour meet – a showcase for a sport that combines balance, speed, agility and strength in an athletic mix of running and climbing obstacles in the quickest way possible. .
Tutoring was provided by a top Australian exponent.
Shahir Daud, the group's cameraman, said more than 50 young people interested in the sport turned up to get tips on how it was done, starting with instructions on how to jump safely as well as jumping and rolling on hard surfaces without suffering injuries.
"I've been filming them for a year and they're very safety-conscious and I've not seen one injury."
The sport, which originated in France more than a decade ago, has become popular through films such as The Bourne Identity, Casino Royale and Die Hard 4. The whole point is training the body to absorb impact and fall correctly.

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Nazi collectible sales ‘abhorrent’

By KEITH LYNCH – Saturday, 07 February 2009

The continued sale of Nazi memorabilia in New Zealand is "disgraceful", Jewish leaders say.
A search of online auction site Zillion this week found several Third Reich collectibles up for sale, including medals, pins and armbands, most adorned with swastikas.
Despite bans in many European countries, the sale of Nazi artefacts is legal in New Zealand.
"It is disgraceful when people make a profit from the sale of items that commemorate the crimes committed by others.
New Zealand Jewish Council president Stephen Goodman said the sale of the items was disgraceful, but stopped short of calling for a ban.
"In many ways, we'd like it to be made illegal, but that said, doing so might give it publicity that would only encourage certain elements. There is, of course, a balance between the freedom of choice and censorship, but profiting from the sale of these items is abhorrent."
Wellington Regional Jewish Council chairman David Zwartz said the sale of Nazi items was deeply offensive.
"After media publicity last year, the prominent auction house Dunbar Sloane changed their policy and now will not handle Nazi material.
"The publicised sale of Nazi memorabilia is offensive to Holocaust survivors and returned servicemen and women from World War II," he said.
Trade Me business manager Mike O'Donnell said the history associated with Nazism made banning the sale of the items an easy decision. . We ban items that relate to anti-semitism, extermination and racial dominance.
"Nazism is a school of thought and there is hate literature associated with it. It's a no-go area for us. It's a no-go area for us.
"That said, we support consumers' freedom and right to do as they please within the law and do not feel that it is Zillion's place to act as a moral censor.
"Firstly and most importantly, Zillion in no way endorses the Nazi regime or those who continue to espouse its rhetoric," he said.
"In the case of Zillion, we simply provide a mechanism for New Zealanders to buy and sell items that are legally tradeable in an open and efficient online auction environment," the spokesman said.
"These same objects, like wartime memorabilia from many nations, are common collector's items and can be purchased in antique and second-hand shops across New Zealand.

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Canterbury leads with tickets for boy racers

– Saturday, 31 January 2009

Canterbury boy racers received almost half of all tickets handed out nationally by police for noisy vehicles last year.
Canterbury's acting road policing manager, Senior Sergeant Neville Hyland, said that last year more than 3800 noise-infringement tickets were handed out nationwide. More than 1700 were given to Canterbury drivers.
A demerit system was introduced last year where police could issue infringement notices to people with excessively noisy cars, he said.
The high number of infringement notices issued in Canterbury was possibly due to police vigilance, Hyland said. Previously, drivers of noisy cars could be given just a fine, he said. If drivers got more than 100 demerit points they could lose their licence.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker has taken a stand against boy racers, banning them from certain areas on the outskirts of the city and introducing night-time no-stopping restrictions on Deans, Harper and Moorhouse avenues.
This month, Parker called on the Government to tell Christchurch residents what it would do to address the problem of boy racers. .
Parker called for urgent legislation to:
Use demerit points for offences such as unpaid fines, speeding, noisy vehicles and false or obscured registration plates.
"The ball is now in the court of central government to introduce legislation to curb the problem of young hoons terrorising our community," he said.
Police being able to ticket immediately without having to warn drivers at unruly gatherings.
Licences suspended for unpaid fines.
Third-party insurance for all vehicles.
Third-party insurance for all vehicles.
Transport Minister Steven Joyce said he would visit Christchurch in the next six weeks to see the problem at "ground level".
Lowering the legal level of blood-alcohol for drivers.
The Ministry of Transport is writing a report for Joyce on proposals to curb noisy cars.
He said he would talk to Police Minister Judith Collins on whether current laws gave police enough power to act against boy racers.

. The report should be finished mid-year

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Family wins second Madagascar trip

The Thursday, 22 January 2009

PATRICK HAMILTON/
WHAT ARE THE CHANCES: Chrystiana, 8, and Chase, 5, Wright are old enough this time to accompany parents David and Shelley after the family won a trip to South Africa for the second time in a Madagascar movie promotion.

The lucky dip gods might soon start examining twice at a Stoke family. They will soon pack their bags for a second trip to South Africa as winners once more of a national competition run in conjunction with the launch of a movie.
The Wright family has won national competition draws more times than the odds would normally allow.
Last week, they learned they had won again, after entering a competition to promote the sequel, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
Four years ago, their names were drawn from the barrel of entrants in a nationwide competition run through the TV Guide to promote the animated movie Madagascar. The family then sent in a couple of entries, tempted by the smaller prizes available, Shelley Wright said.
The competition involved counting the number of times the logo of the movie's character Alex the Lion featured during a recent television screening of Madagascar."
Last week they got a call from the movie's distribution company, Paramount Productions, announcing them as winners.
"I thought it would be a waste of time entering, but they had such great runner-up prizes, and the kids love the movie.
Paramount Productions spokesperson Matt Andree Wiltens said the competition, run with TVNZ (TV2) and the TV Guide, had a great response, with thousands of entries.
"Never in our wildest dreams did we expect to win again," said her husband, David Wright, operations manager at the Nelson City Council. I know they put in more than one entry to the competition, and I guess it goes to prove the adage that you've got to be in to win.
"The Wright family were the lucky winners drawn out of the barrel.
He said that while there were many memorable highlights from their first trip to South Africa, sharing a picnic with other winners from around the world, who were then gatecrashed by a mob of 20-30 hungry baboons, stood out."
The Wrights' two children, Chrystiana, 8, and Chace, 5, were too young to travel the first time, so the second opportunity was a rare blessing, Mr Wright said. They attacked the van, and the authentic African barbecue we were having.
"They came charging over the sand dunes. . One baboon grabbed the bag of an Irish lady, but she held on and screamed loudest and the baboon let go," Mr Wright said. I had four because no one else was eating anything," Mr Wright said.
"That day we went to an ostrich farm and got offered steaks for lunch. The couple also won their honeymoon to Sydney in 1995, and then a competition in December 1999 to meet American actor and comedian Robin Williams while he was in Auckland promoting his movie Bicentennial Man.
Mrs Wright has the lucky hand and regularly enters competitions.
The family plans to take up their latest prize during the April school holidays.
The family plans to take up their latest prize during the April school holidays.