Two a penny

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The Australian Trade Commission told one of its most senior diplomats that he was under police investigation for alleged child sex offences, allowing the man to resign and return home, where he later sexually abused a 15-year-old Victorian schoolboy and groomed another boy from Auckland.

John Finnin held a top-secret security clearance from the Federal Government until July 2006, at a time it was alleged he was involved in an international child sex ring.

Austrade was told Finnin was suspected of using his diplomatic status and access to Australian embassies around the world to traffic in young children for sex. No charges were laid on this matter. .

The Herald understands Austrade co-operated with an Australian Federal Police investigation into the matter after the allegation was first put by the Dutch and/or German police.

On Friday the Victorian County Court remanded Finnin for sentencing after he was found guilty the previous month of 23 child sex charges after a trial lasting almost three weeks. Finnin, who denied the allegations, was then allowed to leave Austrade with his reputation intact, quietly joining the fraudulent fuel technology company Firepower and returning to Melbourne. The other charges were procuring a child for sex, grooming a child for sex and transmitting child pornography.

Seven charges were for entering into an agreement for the provision of sexual services by a child; another seven were for committing an indecent act in the presence of a child, and another six were for sexual penetration of a child.

Much of the evidence brought against Finnin came from the federal police, which continued its investigation after Finnin resigned from Austrade in May 2006.

The court heard that Finnin paid a Melbourne boy, 15, at least $100 for sex on seven occasions and cruised online for sex with other New Zealand and American children as young as 13.

The Herald understands that police officers were assigned to a special task force, with 24-hour surveillance set up in an empty unit opposite Finnin’s apartment in Sandringham, Victoria. He left his job two months later after working out his notice.

But Austrade continued to work with Finnin, entering into a service agreement with Firepower and giving the company $394,009 in export grants. At the time, he drove a Maserati Quattroporto, a bonus to his $500,000 annual salary in his new capacity as chief executive of Firepower.

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Nearly 400 jobs at New Zealand Post Group have fallen victim to the recession.

Acting group chief executive Sam Knowles said there had been 237 redundancies in the first half of this year, 86 jobs were lost through attrition, and 61 fixed term contracts not renewed.

Not all the news was bad, with 90 new jobs created.

The group had about 10,000 permanent staff.

Mr Knowles said the recession, an unprecedented mail volume decline and challenging trading conditions were to blame for job cuts.

“Different businesses within the Group are being affected in different ways and each is responding appropriately,” Mr Knowles said.

Approximately 90 percent of total job reductions were in the postal services business, and 72 percent of that block took voluntary redundancy.

“While the postal services and data processing and management activities have been adversely affected, Kiwibank is experiencing substantial growth and has added 89 people to its payroll during the period.

Today’s figures did not include 74 potential redundancies arising from plans to close the Auckland call centre. .

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After he had stabbed and disfigured Sophie Elliott in a bedroom attack, Clayton Weatherston told a police officer: “I killed her” in a calm, normal tone, a court has been told.

“It appeared that he was in normal control … he was just standing with his hands either side of himself,” Constable John Cunningham has told the Christchurch High Court.

Weatherston is on trial for Elliott’s murder at Dunedin on January 9 last year.

Cunningham was the first person at Elliott’s Ravensbourne home the day she was killed. The defence says he was provoked to kill her.”

Cunningham said he went upstairs to Elliott’s bedroom.

He described talking to Elliott’s mother, Lesley Elliott, on the driveway who told him “that her daughter was dead.

“I tried the door handle but it was locked.

“I then heard the door being unlocked so I opened the door and walked in to a small bedroom.

I voice appealed to open the door or I would kick it in,” he said.

“I was confronted by a body, lying face up.

I saw in front of me on the floor a young female caucasian … I then saw a male standing a the end of the bed.

He asked Weatherston to lie prone on the floor, which he complied with, straight away.”

Cunningham said he asked the man, who was Weatherston, what he had done and he said: “I killed her” in a calm, normal tone. He said his name was “Clayt”. He said his name was “Clayt”.

“I then asked him, why did you kill her.

“I asked him if he understood these rights and he replied that he did,” Cunningham said.”

He asked what he had killed her with, and Weatherston said a knife. He replied, the emotional pain she has caused me over the past year.” Cunningham also asked him about a pair of scissors he found between Elliott’s legs. .

“All this time, the defendant Clay was lying face down in the room.

“He replied, I used them at the end,” Cunningham said.

“I could clearly see the stab wounds to the right side of her throat,” he said.” Cunningham said he put gloves on and checked Elliott’s carotid artery, finding no pulse. … Her legs were spread wide. … Her legs were spread wide. … She had multiple cut and stab wounds to the left side of the throat with a large amount of blood around the throat area.”

Cunningham said he took Weatherston downstairs and told him was under arrest for assault – “he replied he understood.”

Weatherston was on the ground outside the house and continued answering questions. “He was very forthcoming and just answered my questions.”

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A bruised teenage girl clung to the wreckage of a Yemeni plane for more than 13 hours before rescuers found her floating in the Indian Ocean, a French official said on Wednesday.

There was no word on any other survivors, but French officials said one of the plane’s black boxes had been found.An Associated Press reporter saw 14-year-old Bahia Bakari in a Comoros hospital Wednesday as she was visited by government officials.The Yemenia Airbus 310 jet carrying 153 people to island nation of Comoros crashed into the sea early Tuesday as it attempted to land in the dark amid howling winds.”It is a true miracle. She was conscious with bruises on her face and a gauze bandage on her elbow. “She held onto a piece of the plane from 1:30 a. She is a courageous young girl,” Alain Joyandet, France’s minister for international cooperation, said at the hospital.m.m to 3:00 p. Her father arrives tomorrow. She has lost her mother.Kassim Bakari said he spoke with his oldest daughter by phone after Tuesday’s crash.”The girl’s father told French radio that his daughter was “fragile” and could “barely swim” but managed to hang on.He said she was ejected and found herself beside the plane. Bahia had left Paris on Monday night with her mother to see family in the Comoros. She heard people speaking around her but she couldn’t see anyone in the darkness,” Bakari said on France’s RTL radio.”She couldn’t feel anything, and found herself in the water.”Said Mohammed, a nurse at El Mararouf hospital in the Comoros capital of Moroni, said the girl was doing well and doctors would release more on her condition later Wednesday. “She’s a very timid girl, I never thought she would escape like that. Said Abdilai told Europe 1 radio that Bahia was too weak to grasp the life ring rescuers threw to her, so he jumped into the sea to get her.Sgt.The crash a few kilometers off this island nation came two years after aviation officials reported equipment faults with the plane, an aging Airbus 310 flying the last leg of a Yemenia airlines flight from Paris and Marseille to the Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes. He said rescuers gave the trembling girl warm water with sugar. Sixty-six on board were French nationals. Sixty-six on board were French nationals.Turbulence was believed to be a factor in the crash, Yemen’s embassy in Washington said.Gen. Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy, the senior commander for French forces in the southern Indian Ocean, said the Airbus 310 crashed in deep waters about 14.4 kilometers north of the Comoran coast and 34 kilometers from the Moroni airport.A French military cargo plane flew Wednesday over a zone 80 kilometers north of Grand Comoros Island, while two inflatable dinghies sent by French forces on La Reunion island combed waters closer to the coast.”The search is continuing,” Joyandet said. “No other survivors have been found for the moment.”Col. .A French tug arrived from the French island of Mayotte to recover survivors, corpses and debris, while a French frigate diverted from anti-piracy operations, the Nivose, and another French military ship headed to the scene.Both France and Airbus sent experts to the Comoros to aid in the investigation.The tragedy – and dwindling hopes that anyone else made it out alive – prompted an outcry in Comoros, where residents have long complained of a lack of seat belts on Yemenia flights and planes so overcrowded that passengers had to stand in the aisles.The Comoros, home to some 700,000 people, is an archipelago of three main islands situated 2,900 kilometers south of Yemen, between Africa’s southeastern coast and the island of Madagascar.French aviation inspectors found a “number of faults” in the plane’s equipment during a 2007 inspection, French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said.European Union Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said the airline had previously met EU safety checks but would now face a full investigation amid questions why passengers were put on another jet in the Yemeni capital of San’a.The vice president of Comoros criticized French officials for not telling his nation about any suspected problems.”We wish the French could have informed us of any irregularity or any problems with that plane,” Idi Nadhoim said Wednesday on France-24 television.”Most if not all of the planes of Yemenia are Airbus,” he said. “They are supposed to be serviced by Airbus.”"We trust the civil aviation authorities of the countries we are working with,” he added, suggesting that French authorities discriminated against “those French who are left by themselves to fly this type of plane” – French citizens from former French colonies.Airbus said the plane that crashed went into service 19 years ago, in 1990, and had accumulated 51,900 flight hours. It has been operated by Yemenia since 1999.

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An elderly man has been dragged to his death after his foot became trapped as he attempted to get off a train in the Auckland suburb of Newmarket.

The man, who was believed to be in his 70s, slipped as he was getting off the train at the Newmarket station.

His foot became stuck and he was dragged for several metres by the train until it stopped just under the Newmarket Broadway overbridge, police said.15pm.

Emergency services and Ontrack workers arrived at the scene shortly after 1.

Newmarket Business Association chief executive Cameron Brewer said he had never had any complaints about the safety of the temporary platform on Kingdon Street at Newmarket station.

Police and rail workers were removing the body this afternoon.

“It has been operating for over 18 months, since the old station was decommissioned. . In fact people have been calling for the platform to be made permanent because it has been working well,” he said.

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A former girlfriend of murder-accused Clayton Weatherston has told the High Court in Christchurch that he once kicked her across the room.

The woman, whose name and occupation is suppressed, said she was in a relationship with Weatherston from 2004 to August 2007, when he ended it.

Weatherston, 33, is accused of stabbing his former girlfriend Sophie Elliott, 22, to death at her home on 9 January last year.

The witness, who was Weatherston’s girlfriend before he started dating Elliott, recounted a violent incident in the latter half of 2006 when he had kicked her across the floor. He admits her manslaughter but denies the murder charge.

She had rushed to the bathroom and Weatherston would not let her leave. He had kicked her in the back and the ribs and her knee had hit her nose which started bleeding, she told the High Court in Christchurch. Her eye was bruised in the assault.

“I felt trapped,” she said.

He would not let her leave the house and took her car keys because he wanted to talk about it.

“I told if him if you don’t get help I will leave you,” she said.

She recovered and she got very annoyed and told him to get help.

Weatherston had, according to Elliott, denied a previous violent incident in his bedroom on December 27, 2007, and had accused her of making up stories and being crazy.

Earlier in the day, Elliott’s friend Erin van de Water, told the High Court in Christchurch Elliott had told her of a meeting she had with Weatherston on January 7, 2007, in his office in the Economics Department at Otago University. As Elliott was leaving Weatherston had accused her of ruining his career and Elliott believed he had tried to push her down the stairs. As Elliott was leaving Weatherston had accused her of ruining his career and Elliott believed he had tried to push her down the stairs.

She heard from Elliott how Weatherston thought he was much better than her and she was lucky to be going out with him. They would often “vent” on their personal life and she became aware of the relationship with Weatherston.

Elliott often wondered if they had a relationship as Weatherston would want to spend quality time with his ex-girlfriend who was supposed to be the most amazing person. . By Christmas they did not seem to be a couple any more.

Van de Water, a make-up artist, said Elliott felt her self esteem was damaged by Weatherston’s comments and her confidence was noticeably knocked. She reported that earlier that day she had visited Weatherston to give him a photo album of his graduation.

On December 27 Elliott had come to her house and looked shaky and flushed. He had made insulting remarks about her appearance saying her chin was too pointy and her eyes were too far apart. Weatherston had started shouting and forced her on to his bed and put his arm on her throat.

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He’s done it again for the seventh time.

Kiwi freediver William Trubridge has broken the world record in his specialist diving discipline of constant weight without fins considered the “purest form” of the sport because it uses no fins, weight, rope or any other aid.
On a s of air, he dived to an unassisted depth of 88 metres and swam back to the surface at the Vertical Blue 2009 event in the Bahamas.
The event was held in Dean’s Blue Hole, a 200m-deep sinkhole. He finished the dive, on Saturday morning, in three minutes and 30 seconds.
Trubridge, 28, set his first constant weight without fins record in April 2007, diving to 82m. It was Trubridge’s seventh world record, and his fifth in that discipline. That was broken by Austrian Herbert Nitsch, at 83m, but Trubridge bettered it again with 86m last year.
A few days earlier, he descended to 88m but he blacked out when he got to the surface and took his first breath, which disqualified him. . “But somehow I managed to remain calm and finished the dive completely lucid.
He said he felt anxious as he went for his second attempt.
“Freediving is a sport similar to marathon running, in the sense that athletes peak later in age.”
He planned to keep pursuing records and “extending the idea of the human aquatic potential” for at least another five to 10 years.”
Preparing for a dive required “years of training, months of specific depth adaptation, and a couple of hours of body and lung stretching and meditative exercises on the day”, Trubridge said.”
Preparing for a dive required “years of training, months of specific depth adaptation, and a couple of hours of body and lung stretching and meditative exercises on the day”, Trubridge said.”
Trubridge spent his teenage years in the Bay of Islands and Hawke’s Bay, he said. “He basically learned to walk on the boat before he walked on land.

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Cultural differences mean some Chinese students are unwittingly cheating at university, the head of the Christchurch International College says.

has obtained figures on academic misconduct at Canterbury, Otago, Victoria and Auckland universities. .

However, a request for data on ethnicity was declined. Another was fined for photocopying a previous year’s assignment and submitting it under their own name.

One Canterbury student was fined $200 for submitting an essay lifted off the internet.

An Official Information Act request for data on the ethnicity of academic misconduct cases was declined by all four universities.

Last year, one student was excluded from the university for plagiarism.

In a preliminary ruling, the Ombudsman agreed the data should not be released because it “would be likely to endanger the safety” of people.

has continued to appeal to the Ombudsman for access to the declined requests dating to March 2007.

However, Waikato University reported 143 of a total 222 cases of proven academic misconduct there in 2006 were by Chinese students.

“The phrase `endanger the safety’ of any person has generally been accepted as meaning there must be a substantial risk that a person’s life is likely to be put in peril or there is danger that their physical safety will be jeopardised,” the preliminary decision said.

Christchurch International College principal Mei Ding Dawson said there was “some culture difference because of the way Chinese education is tied to memory”.

Pakeha students were responsible for 28 cases and Maori 10 of the 222 cases.

“We think if something is good, you just memorise that and then you copy that.

“It’s changing but the [Chinese] education system is still not that like New Zealand in that way,” said Dawson, who is Chinese.

“They probably don’t understand, I would say,” Dawson said.”

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Student orientation for international students arriving in New Zealand was not favourably explaining differences to Chinese students. I don’t think they should get anything special, but maybe they should get orientation or educate the Chinese, especially the new ones just coming from China. “When you’re in Rome, you must do what the Romans do.”

New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations co-president Jordan King said the rules about cheating were clear and most students followed them. They need to be educated or need to be told that you are not accepting the Western cultures.

“I think that could potentially come in to it in some of those cases but, obviously, I haven’t seen the breakdown of the background of those particular students who have infringed.

“I guess there is always the question of English as a second language and international students and perhaps perceptions of the rules and misinterpretation of the rules around plagiarism and proper operating in the New Zealand university context,” King said.

“There could be some cultural differences at play when it comes to that sort of thing and, obviously, new students, international students participating in the tertiary sector, probably have a reasonably difficult time adjusting after that first instance,” King said.

“There could be some cultural differences at play when it comes to that sort of thing and, obviously, new students, international students participating in the tertiary sector, probably have a reasonably difficult time adjusting after that first instance,” King said.

Tertiary Education Union national secretary Sharn Riggs said there was “a swathe of issues around international students” getting support.

“I think the institutions do their best, but it’s not just a case of language difficulties, there are different cultural approaches to learning,” Riggs said.

A Canterbury University spokesman said academic staff were encouraged to help students understand the concept of academic integrity, and how to do proper referencing.

“UC works with academic staff to help them recognise situations where there is risk of cheating and helps them develop forms of assessment which minimise opportunity for plagiarism,” the spokesman said.

Auckland University said it was dealing with more cellphones being taken into examination rooms.

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Fight to stop brothel from expanding

The Tuesday, 03 March 2009

Residents of Wellington's Mt Victoria, upset about a local brothel, have taken the city council to court over consent to employ more prostitutes.
The Lovely Lilly brothel in Pirie St opened in 2006 and gained council approval last year to increase its number of prostitutes from three to five. The brothel was busiest from 11am to 3pm on weekdays.
Residents complained of illegally parked cars, intimidating men, and a client sleeping in his car. .
Yesterday, Justice Robert Dobson reserved his decision on whether the council had correctly granted the consent under the Resource Management Act without notifying residents, and if a section of the Prostitution Reform Act dealing with whether a brothel was likely to cause serious offence, was properly considered.
Some residents had to put up with "substantial brothel activity" and had no opportunity to comment on it, Mr Bennion said. There were concerns about safety and children in the area.
However, Mr Bennion said the council knew there were problems as there had been correspondence with residents about the brothel. In granting the consent, council officers had decided no public notice was needed.
Council lawyer Stephen Quinn said it was accepted that the particular section of the Prostitution Reform Act about serious offence was not explicitly considered in the council's decision, though various factors envisaged by the section were referred to. Residents, however, were told they had to consider a brothel was like any other business.
Ms Li's lawyer, Chris La Hatte, said his client did the right thing and it was to be hoped the council knew what it was doing.
He also agreed that the error would be the council's and not that of the brothel owner, Li Dan.
Mr La Hatte said if Parliament had wanted notification on brothel applications to be mandatory, MPs would have included it in the act.
Refusing her permission to operate her business or even limiting it to three workers could have economic consequences and she was concerned it might have to close.

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Online dating warning after alleged sex assault

By CLIO FRANCIS – Monday, 02 March 2009

Police have issued a warning over the perils of online dating after an alleged sexual assault in Hamilton over the weekend.
Detective Inspector Greg Nicholls said a 41-year-old man was facing a variety of charges relating to the alleged sexual assault of a woman in her home on Saturday morning.
"The offender and victim had connected via the internet sometime last November and had been in subsequent contact since by phone, text and email but had not previously met in person.
He would appear in Hamilton District Court this afternoon, he said.
He urged people to exercise caution.
"The pair had planned to meet on Friday night, however when that fell through the accused had gone to the victim's house and sexually assaulted her," Mr Nicholls said."
The woman, 36, struck up an online friendship with a man she believed was a 33-year-old PhD student from Dunedin in October.
"Wherever possible when meeting with someone for the first time meet in a public place, such as a cafe or restaurant and inform someone where you are going and who you are meeting.
She went to his house, where chickens lived inside among cartons and rubbish, and there was no electricity.
When she arrived on February 8, she realised the unkempt, unemployed 54-year-old had lied about his identity.
The Armed Offender Squad were called while the pair were in Kaikoura, but she was later rescued by police.
When he refused to let her leave the house on her own or take her passport, she contacted a person she had met on her plane, who called police.
The man would not be prosecuted, police said.