.
Child rapist already in jail for sex crimes
Friday, 07 November 2008
A Napierman found guilty of sexually abusing two young girls was already behind bars awaiting sentence for abusing another two girls.
An interim order for name suppression was lifted yesterday. Richard Miller was waiting to be sentenced for sexual offending when a jury this week found him guilty of raping a young girl and abusing another. He had been barred from associating with anyone under 16.
Miller has been in custody since April when his electronic bail was revoked after it was found he had breached bail conditions by holding birthday parties for toddlers.
He was found guilty of committing an indecent act on the six-year-old in a car at Nelson Park on September 19.
Miller, 46, was found guilty in the High Court at Napier on Wednesday of six charges relating to girls aged 6 and 10. Five other convictions, including two of rape, involved a 10-year-old girl and occurred in 1990.
He was convicted on two representative charges of indecently assaulting two girls, aged 15 and 16, between February 2006 and February 2007.
His other convictions came after an earlier trial in August. The 16-year-old had stayed with Miller and his wife for a short time.
The 15-year-old was a family friend.
He is due to be sentenced on December 16 – eight days after he is due to be sentenced in the High Court on the other convictions.
Miller was found guilty on August 14 after a two-day trial in Napier District Court.
.
Arrest over armed robbery of tourists
– Friday, 31 October 2008
Police have arrested a man in connection with the gunpoint robbery of four tourists in the Far North earlier this week.
The 26-year-old man was arrested in Auckland last night and will appear in the Manukau District Court today on charges of aggravated robbery and arson.
The rental van belonging to the Irish tourists was stolen in Dargaville by two men allegedly armed with a long-barrelled firearm, and possibly a pistol at about 12.
Police said the Irish men were "absolutely terrified" when the weapons were produced and their van was taken.30am on Monday.
The two male offenders drove off in the van which had a substantial amount of property inside, including generators and water blasters.
Sergeant Jonathon Tier said the four men initially refused to hand over the keys but changed their minds when the weapons were produced.
The van was found later that morning.
Some of the property has been found, and police say they are still searching for the second offender.
Police said an attempt to destroy the rental van by igniting the driver's seat was made, but the fire failed to take hold.
.
.
Teen seriously injured in Auckland hit and run
– Friday, 31 October 2008
West Auckland police are appealing to the public for help after a teenager was seriously injured in a hit and run.
Police are calling for sightings of a silver Subaru Legacy that was involved in the Tuesday night accident on Henderson Valley Road. .
He remains in a critical condition in Auckland Hospital.15pm.
Waitemata Police communication manager Kevin Loughlin said thedriver did not stop after hitting the man, fleeing towards Te Atatu South.
None of the man’s friends were injured.
The car, which is thought to have been stolen, was recovered by police early on Wednesday morning on Glynbrook Road just off Roberts Road.
Police say a large number of people would have witnessed the vehicle’s movements between Henderson and Te Atatu.
Loughlin saidcar's front plastic bumper and front windscreen were extensively damaged in the incident.
.
Anyone with sightings or other information are asked to contact Senior Constable Karl Bevin at the Waitematä Police Serious Crash Unit on 09 481 0307
.
Many students bored in class
– Tuesday, 28 October 2008
More than half of 14-year-old Kiwi schoolchildren are often bored in class, a new survey shows.
Schools are so interested in the new figures they are buying reports to compare how engaged their students are compared with the rest of the country.
The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) survey of about 8500 students from more than 50 schools was released in the Seeing Yourself in Science report issued late last week.
A scale measured student attitudes to school.
It shows students lose interest in school as each year passes from Year 7 to Year 10. By Year 10, both boys and girls dropped to 53. . A score of 55 was the level at which students said they were often bored in class.
The report says there is an emerging trend for disengagement with science learning in Year 7 and 8 students.
"If you had anybody scoring down around 20 at the bottom of the scale, you would have to say that they would be very sad students who probably had some things going on in their lives that were nothing to do with school at all," said Rose Hipkins, a NZCER chief researcher and co-author of the report.
Students who left school at 16 had started disengaging in early primary years. Disengagement from science sat within a general trend to disengagement from school.
Hipkins said that while the number of students reporting boredom was a concern, there were also positive sentiments expressed by the same students.
"At 12, the young people who left school by 16 were giving up, playing up and increasingly alienated, and this trend was even more marked at age 14," the report says. A score of 55 included sentiments that their culture was treated with respect, they were proud to be at the school and their classes were not a waste of time. A score of 55 included sentiments that their culture was treated with respect, they were proud to be at the school and their classes were not a waste of time.
"They can get the data for their own individual school and see it compared to the national pattern, so they can get a snapshot of how their students are compared to students nationally," Hipkins said.
Schools were able, for the first time, to buy data about the attitudes of their students.
"They've got hugely more choices than we had.
The report highlights the need for a continued shift in curriculum and teaching methods to respond to the more individualistic "late-modern youth".
"They have a level of flexibility that simply wasn't available to us as a result of the way society was organised. They're used to everything being personalised and individualised for them," Hipkins said."
.
Bus driver guilty of grooming teens for sex
Friday, 19 September 2008
A bus driver was told today told to put his affairs in order before he is sentenced for grooming two 15-year-old boys for sex.
A jury found 59-year-old Robert James Ferguson guilty on those two charges this afternoon. He had denied all the charges.
But he was cleared of alternative charges of sexually violating or having unlawful sexual connection with one of the boys, and committing an indecent act with the other.
The three-day trial heard how he met the two intellectually challenged brothers as he drove his bus, and later took them out for a drive, bought them treats, and had them back to his home.
After the verdicts, Judge Jane Farish told the Christchurch District Court jury that Ferguson had previous convictions for indecent assault on a boy aged 12 to 16, and indecent assault on a boy aged over 16 in 1991, and in 1974 he was convicted for indecent exposure.
Defence counsel David Bunce had told the jury that the evidence of the two boys was so inconsistent and improbable that the crown case was weak.
The family of the two boys was in court to see the jury give its verdicts after five hours of deliberations.
He said Ferguson would appreciate time on bail before sentencing, and Judge Farish allowed that, telling him he should put his affairs in order.
He said the verdicts were consistent with Ferguson having indecent intentions towards the boys but not having acted on them.
"Be under no illusions.
She ordered a pre-sentence report and victim impact statements prepared by a psychiatrist on the two boys. It is likely you will receive a custodial sentence," she told Ferguson who will be sentenced on October 21.
– NZPa