Two a penny

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A man who stabbed an Auckland father as he supervised his daughter’s 16th birthday party has been found guilty of attempted murder.

A jury of nine woman and three men found Raymond Tonumaalii, 32, guilty of the charge at the High Court in Auckland this afternoon. .

“I wanted to know why he had stabbed me, I wanted him to look me in the eye and know what reason he had to kill me.

On Monday Mr Matamata told the court he learnt why Tonumaalii attacked him after sitting next to him at an earlier depositions hearing at Waitakere District Court.”

Mr Matamata said Tonumaalii said he had mistaken Mr Matamata for the man that had beaten him up at the party earlier.

“My children could have lost their father that day.

“I said, no mate, I was one of the guys that saved ya.

Crown prosecutor Warren Cathcart said Mr Matamata had been at home “minding his own business” about 2am on April 6 last year when he was attacked with a knife.”

Tonumaalii then apologised to him, Mr Matamata told the court.

Mr Matamata said he could remember little of the struggle.

The stabbing was seen by several teenagers, including Mr Matamata’s children, Mr Cathcart said.”

Tonumaalii suffered minor injuries in the scuffle.

“He had a knife, I was unarmed, I was just doing the best I could to stay alive.

The court was told he confessed to the stabbing when interviewed by a police officer in hospital the next day.

The court was told he confessed to the stabbing when interviewed by a police officer in hospital the next day. I was calm and collected and ready to take his life,” Tonumaalii said to the officer.

“I walked up to him and he laughed at me so I stabbed him in the chest.

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Tonumaalii had later denied he stabbed Mr Matamata

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A Wairarapa mother who crashed her car, killing her four-year-old son, was today found guilty in the High Court at Wellington of his manslaughter. .45pm, after beginning their deliberations at 4pm yesterday.

Her four-year-old son Konrad Truger was thrown about 30m from the vehicle.

Wendy-May Connon was behind the wheel when her car left the road in Featherston, flipping and rolling several times, on January 16 last year.

In his summing up, Crown prosecutor Mark O’Donoghue told the jury Connon was impaired from the cannabis in her system, she had also been speeding, and Konrad was only secured by a lap belt and wasn’t sitting in a booster seat. He suffered severe brain injuries and died three days later.

Connon’s lawyer Jock Blathwayt said there was no evidence she was affected by the cannabis and Konrad would have died regardless of whether he was in a booster seat.

He remanded Connon on bail.

Before the verdict was read, Justice Joseph Williams said it was a tense time and urged those present to remain calm.

Leaving the dock, Connon said: “Thanks for nothing. Sentencing was set for September 24.

Detective Mana Faraimo said there were no winners from the outcome.”

Outside the courtroom, tearful family members consoled each other.

“We still have two grieving families grieving over their four-year-old son.

“We still have two grieving families grieving over their four-year-old son.

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Speeding and taking drugs were a dangerous combination, he said

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Guides are being praised for the speed with which they dug out two skiers buried alive by an avalanche of 100 metric tonnes of snow and ice. .

The second buried ski tourist was dug out within nine minutes and survived unscathed.

The dead man’s name had not been released last night.

The surviving man has been named by the Sydney Morning Herald as Melbourne multi-millionaire John Castran, 53, and the and other tourist – who was caught in the avalanche but not buried in snow – was said to be his son Angus Castran.

The Mountain Safety Council had issued a warning about avalanches in the Ragged Range, close to Methven, only hours earlier, saying the danger level was high.

The three Australian tourists were with two guides from Methven Heliski.

Police, the council and the Labour Department are all investigating.

It was remarkable the guides dug the tourists out so quickly.

Council avalanche programme manager Steve Schreiber said the group had been skiing for four or five hours before triggering the avalanche, which was about 200 metres wide.”

‘HE SHOULDN’T HAVE DIED’

Methven Heliski director Kevin Boekholt, one of the two guides in the expedition, said the dead man was buried a metre down. “It’s pretty heroic to be able to have the skills to get these people out, who are so deep, and to get them all out. He was under the snow but there’s a lot of air in snow. “He had his head up and he had no snow in his mouth. He shouldn’t have died. He shouldn’t have died. “We skied all over the world together.

He had skied with the dead man for 25 years. He’s like one of my best friends. We hang out together all the time. Mr Heuchan, 33, fell into a crevasse and was buried by snow.”

A mountain guide for more than 25 years, Mr Boekholt received a bravery medal from the Royal Humane Society, after he and two other guides worked in vain to save the life of Australian heli-skier Joshua Heuchan in 2004. “They were able to distinguish his track marks and began probing.

Westpac rescue helicopter general manager Simon Duncan said the guides used avalanche probes to search for the buried man who died.

Statistics showed a person buried for up to 18 minutes had a 93 per cent chance of survival.”

He described the area the group was in as extremely remote. “I suspect there was something else going on, maybe an underlying illness related to this. “I suspect there was something else going on, maybe an underlying illness related to this.”

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Sean Headifen hugged his girlfriend as he took his dying breath after a brutal attack which started over a $5 cocktail in a Bali bar.

Sarah Whitburn, 19, arrived home in Palmerston North on Wednesday night after dealing with her boyfriend’s death on her own in a foreign country for four gruelling days.

The brawl started over a free cocktail coupon.

The couple, together five months, had been on the perfect holiday until the bar brawl that led to 22-year-old Mr Headifen’s death.30am Sunday, they tried to redeem the coupon at the Bounty Bar.

About 2.

As they walked away Mr Headifen accidently knocked over a glass. Staff sent them upstairs and downstairs, and then the bartender swore at them and ignored them.

“It hit him on his right temple.

Miss Whitburn turned to see the bartender pick up a fishbowl glass and throw it at Mr Headifen.. [I believe] . that is what ultimately killed him..” Silence fell over the bar, and when security staff grabbed Mr Headifen a fight broke out.

“Sean sort of stood there all confused.

“They had his arms held behind his back and the boxer guy was punching him in the stomach, that’s where the internal damage was done.

Mr Headifen was allegedly punched repeatedly by six men, including Indonesian champion boxer Andreas Seran, 29, who was “good mates” with the security staff.”

Seran took a swing at Miss Whitburn and injured her wrist, which is now bandaged. I jumped on his [Seran's] back to try and pull him off.

“I was trying to push in and get him out but they just wouldn’t let me.

Mr Headifen was pushed to the ground and hit the back of his head on stairs.”

They were pushed outside by the mob. He started to get up and they started punching him and kicking him again.”

Mr Headifen had a bleeding split lip and a lump the size of a golf ball on his right temple.”

Mr Headifen had a bleeding split lip and a lump the size of a golf ball on his right temple.

“Before it happened he was drunk, but he was talking fine. After that he was slurring all of his words, he couldn’t walk straight and he was flopping over.”

Miss Whitburn said he was talking to her during the one-minute walk back to their room where she lay him on the double bed at Sari Yasa Samudra Bungalows.

“I said: `I can’t look after you by myself I need to get help’.”

She pleaded with reception staff to ring an ambulance.

“They rang the number and gave the phone to me and I said: `I need an ambulance, my partner’s been hit in the head and he’s bleeding. I think he needs stitches and he’s got a lump on his head’. They said: `Does he have travel insurance?’ and I said: `No’.”

The ambulance staff said it would cost more than three million rupiah, equivalent to NZ$500, but the couple didn’t have this sort of cash on them.

An ATM withdrawal was limited to one million rupiah at a time, she said.

“They never mentioned a free ambulance.”

Worried, she rushed back to Mr Headifen. “He was sitting on the side of the bed and had just thrown up on the floor, that would have been from all the punching in his stomach.

“He took off his T-shirt and threw that on the floor and lay back down. I thought he’s talking to me, he’s thrown up, he’s taken his own clothes off so he’s not too bung in the head.”

She told him she was going to find help.

“On the way out he said: `I love you’ and I said: `I love you too’.”

By now she was frantic. She went to find a pay phone, and going out of the hotel bumped into an Australian man, Sam Rohan, 24. They rushed to his hotel five minutes away to get his mobile phone.

Miss Whitburn called her travel insurers, Southern Cross, to see if Mr Headifen could be covered by her insurance.

The answer was no.

She didn’t call for another ambulance as she believed her efforts would be futile.

When she returned to Mr Headifen he’d vomited again.

About 4am, 90 minutes after the attack, Miss Whitburn had a shower to wash the blood off, put on her pyjamas and got into bed with Mr Headifen.

“He woke up and I thought if he’s got a head injury the best thing to do is keep him awake.”

But all she could do was make sure he kept breathing.

“He had his arm around me and I had my head on his chest so I could hear him breathe.”

He was breathing “really fast”, she said.

“I tried to stay awake for as long as I could .. . just after 5am I fell asleep for maybe 10 or 20 minutes. When I woke up his breathing was slowing down real fast.”

He finally stopped breathing between 5.30am and 5.45am.

“He was still hugging me.”

She couldn’t feel his pulse, his pupils had dilated and his mouth had turned blue.

She ran to the reception and told them he wasn’t breathing and they needed to call an ambulance.

“I ran back to the room and was yelling at him and shaking him trying to wake him up.”

It took another hour for an ambulance to arrive. She stayed in bed with him.

“I knew he was dead but I wasn’t going to leave until the ambulance got there.”

Ambulance staff started doing CPR.

“For a couple of minutes I thought it was working.”

When the medics called his death, Miss Whitburn fainted.

She came to and Mr Headifen had been placed on the single bed in their room.

She phoned her parents, Peter and Marie Whitburn of Palmerston North, then police arrived.

She spent the next four days dealing with police, liaising with her insurance company, trying to contact family and friends back home and coming to grips with the fact that her boyfriend would never hold her again.

Seran, along with bartender Doni Suastika, 30, and security staff member Nengah Suastika, 34, are in police custody.

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Tax cuts that come in on Wednesday will deliver a billion dollar a year boost to the economy while changes to the business tax regime will help companies get through the recession, ministers said today.

April 1 is the date for personal tax cuts that will increase the income of a worker on the average wage of $48,500 by $18 a week.

“These changes form a central part of the Government’s Jobs and Growth plan and will provide a shot in the arm for our economy at a vital time,” Finance Minister Bill English said.

A range of changes making it simpler and less expensive for small and medium-sized business, passed by Parliament last week, also take effect on that date.”

Revenue Minister Peter Dunne said the income tax cuts took New Zealand one step closer to a 30/30/30 per cent alignment of the top personal, company and trustee tax rates.

“The tax cuts we have delivered will stimulate the economy in the short term by putting cash people’s pockets, and in the longer term by encouraging people to invest in their own skills to earn and keep more money.

“In regard to small and medium-sized businesses, the tax assistance initiatives will make it easier for them to manage their cash flows and meet their tax obligations during tough economic times.

“That is something I have long advocated and I’m pleased it is now a medium-term government priority,” he said.

The ministers said close toly every business would benefit in some way from the changes, which allow companies to keep their money longer, reduce the interest they pay on underpaid tax and cut compliance costs.”

For earners, the changes mean tax rate cuts and threshold changes, as well as a new Independent Earner Tax Credit which will give an extra $10 a week to those earning between $24,000 and $44,000 a year who do not receive a benefit, Working for Families tax credits or national superannuation. The minimum level of contributions will drop from 4 per cent of a worker’s pay to 2 per cent.

There are also changes to KiwiSaver from April 1.

WHAT YOU’LL GET

Weekly tax cuts for workers who do not receive the Independent Earner Tax Credit:

Salary.

The employer tax credit and $40-a-year member fee subsidy will also cease. . . … . . . .tax cut

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$25,000… . …0.00

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$45,000. . .. . .$11.54

$50,000. . .. . .$18.46

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$85,000. . .. . .$21.35

$90,000. . .. . .$22.31

$95,000. . .. . .$23.27

$100,000. . …$24.23

Annual tax cuts for workers who receive the Independent Earner Tax Credit:

Salary. . .. . .. . .tax cut

$25,000. . .. . .$520

$30,000. . .. . .$520

$35,000. . .. . .$520

$40,000. . .. . .$520

$45,000. . .. . .$990

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Women fired because they were pregnant

By KATHERINE NEWTON Thursday, 04 December 2008

/The
DAMAGES: Former Auckland bar manager Sophie Melrose, with son Lukus, was awarded nearly $36,000 in compensation and lost wages after being wrongfully dismissed.

Twoemployers have been ordered to pay thousands of dollars in compensation for wrongfully dismissing two employees after they became pregnant.
Ms Melrose was demoted from her job as general manager at The Vulcan bar in December 2007, a week after she told her employers she was pregnant.
Former Auckland bar manager Sophie Melrose was awarded nearly $36,000 in compensation and lost wages, and former waitress Doris Chiu was awarded more than $22,000, in two separate cases decided by the Employment Relations Authority.
She has since given birth to a healthy baby boy, but said the loss of her job marred her pregnancy. . It was very, very stressful for me and my partner. "I lost all my maternity leave."
She said she was relieved to have won her case.
"I found myself always having anxiety attacks – my midwife was constantly checking my blood pressure.
"I just felt like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders. "I always knew that what had happened was wrong, but to have that verified by a court was so good.
Her employers, Lina Megawaty and John White, claimed she had failed to provide proof of her entitlement to work in New Zealand, despite being a New Zealand resident."
Ms Chiu was fired from her job at the New Deli Cafe, Albany, in August 2007, a few weeks after she told her employers she was pregnant.
That information would have been discovered when Ms Chiu applied to Inland Revenue for maternity and parental leave.
However, Ms Chiu provided evidence that suggested her employers had dismissed her in an attempt to cover up the fact they had paid only one month of her PAYE tax to Inland Revenue.
"Her memory of the birth of her child will long be marred by what happened when she told her employers she was pregnant.
Authority member Alastair Dumbleton said Ms Chiu had been humiliated by being called "a liar and a fraud, and a fabricator of evidence". "We're being shown as people who discriminate against pregnant women, when we're not."
Mr White said yesterday that he was considering challenging the decision. "I can just imagine what it took for those women to have to go through all this while they were pregnant."
Maternity Services Consumer Council coordinator Lynda Williams said the cases made her despair.
Wellington employment lawyer Peter Cullen said firing a woman because she was pregnant was sexual discrimination and a breach of the Human Rights Act."
She hoped the cases would be a deterrent to employers who thought such behaviour was tolerable. "It's not often that people get discriminated against like that. "It's not often that people get discriminated against like that."

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Brother, sister talk to police after attempted kidnapping

By JARED MORGAN – Tuesday, 25 November 2008

A brother and sister at the centre of an attempted kidnapping in Invercargill will be spoken to today by police and a psychologist specially trained in interviewing children.
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Bowman, of Invercargill CIB, said the children would be interviewed to gain extra insight into the attempted abduction, which happened in daylight on Sunday.
A man tried to grab the four-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy as they played at the rugby league grounds on the corner of Ness and Ettrick streets about 3pm.
The man then grabbed the boy, but the pair managed to escape when the man went to open the van door.
He attempted to pull the girl by her arm into a white van but the boy held her other arm.
"It's certainly not something we've had for a long time here and of course one (attempted kidnapping) is too many," he said.
The incident and its timing was of concern to police, Bowman said.
THe officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Fred Shandley, said police planned to interview the boy today while his sister, because of her age, would be spoken to by a psychologist.

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Man charged over McCahon theft

Thursday, 20 November 2008

DEVELOPMENT: Police have today charged a 60-year-old Wanganui man with theft of this Colin McCahon sculpture.

Police have today charged a 60-year-old Wanganui man with theft of a Colin McCahon sculpture, which was later bought at auction for $25,000 by a prominent Wellington millionaire.
The iron cross sculpture was purchased by Lloyd Morrison in 2006 during an auction at Dunbar Sloane, but seized from his Wellington home in February this year after a complaint to police. .
The cross had been given to Wanganui artist Joanna Paul, a former student of McCahon's who died in 2003, then stored by relatives in a Wanganui building, from where they claim it later disappeared before being put up for auction.

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Rising star one of two killed in crash

Friday, 19 September 2008

One of the two young shearers killed in a road crash in Central Otago was a rising star in the shearing world.
Police have said speed and fatigue were likely factors in the deaths Southland shearing gang members Stewart Hetaraka Smith, 20, of Mataura and Lavenia Setefano, 19, of Gore.15am when a van containing six shearers rolled on a straight stretch road about 4km east of Poolburn, between Ophir and Oturehua.
They were killed about 6.
Smith andSetefano died at the scene.
All six were thrown from the van when it rolled on a straight stretch of road and came to rest in a paddock. They were two women, aged 17 and 20, from Alexandra, and a 40-year-old man from Masterton.
Three others were seriously injured and flown by helicopter to Dunedin Hospital. The two young Alexandra women were his daughters.
The gang worked for Alexandra shearing contractor Dion Morrell.
"They are fairly well battered and bruised," he said.
Morrell said just before he left for Dunedin yesterday that doctors believed his daughters would pull through.
He said Smith and Setefano were "superb, absolute gems".
Smith, Setefano and the other survivors had worked for him for about two months..
"It's a hell of a loss . As people you couldn't wish for better..
A 36-year-old man from Gisborne was taken to Dunstan Hospital with moderate injuries. They really were cool kids," he said.
He was in three successive finals at Golden Shears in Masterton, was a runner-up in the junior class in 2006, fourth in the intermediate class in 2007 and fourth in the senior class in March this year.
Mr Smith was a promising young competition shearer who had spent two years on the "modern apprentice" programme with industry trainers Tectra.
Detective Sergeant Derek Shaw, of the Central Otago CIB, said he understood neither Smith nor Setefano was driving.
He had started last season finishing second in the New Zealand Spring Shears intermediate final at Waimate in October, before going up to the senior class, and finishing third at the Southern Shears in Gore in February, before heading for Masterton.
No other vehicle was involved in the crash, Shaw said.
No other vehicle was involved in the crash, Shaw said.
He described the crash scene as "horrific and tragic".
Smith was from a prominent Mataura shearing family, and had made the final at the past three Golden Shears competitions.
– With