2 American Tourists Robbed In Northland

Two American visitors have been robbed whilst sandboarding on dunes in Shipwreck Bay near Ahipara in Northland. Further details may be found here: Theft ruins holiday

Other tourists have also been robbed in this area, including Canadian Cybil Litwiller whose car was broken into and three bags were stolen, including those containing all of her holiday possessions. Fortunately her passport wasn't in the vehicle at the time.

One Woman Crime Wave Highlights Defects In NZ's Legal System (Updated)

Patricia Toia, 29, was recently deported from Australia back to her native New Zealand. Toia has a criminal history that's said to include 30 jail terms for crimes that include robbery, assault and trafficking heroin. Whilst in jail she committed another 56 offences, such as assault, intimidation and damaging and destroying property. Whilst in Australia the Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Julian Block said of her in 2007:

"She is a threat to the Australian community, and Australia deserves protection against her, given that the risk of recidivism is, as must be obvious, very substantial indeed."

We wonder what protection New Zealand will have against her, if any.

She arrived in Auckland on 10 September by chartered jet (costing $40,000) because commercial carriers refused to touch her and is now living in an hotel at the tax payers expense.

According to Garth Vicar of the Sensible Sentencing Trust her return exposes a deficiency within the justice system in New Zealand. This quote is taken from a Yahoo.co.nz News NewstalkZB report:

"The Sensible Sentencing Trust sees the deportation of a woman with over 30 pages of criminal convictions from Australia as proof of what's wrong with our justice system.

Patricia Toia was born in New Zealand, but has lived most of her life in Australia. She has been sent back after racking up 30 jail terms, and well over 100 driving convictions.

Trust spokesman Garth Vicar says it is just a matter of time before the woman, dubbed a "human crime wave" breaks the law here. he says New Zealand's criminal-friendly system means she can come home to make a fresh start. In her case, he believes it is likely to include a fresh crime and therefore a fresh victim. Mr McVicar says Toia is a cunning and manipulative career criminal."

Mr McVicar says the Government claims to be tough on crime, so it needs to step up and make sure she is watched for the safety of New Zealanders. He says she should have been put on permanent police supervision the moment she arrived here, rather than waiting for her to reoffend."

New Zealand already has the second highest rate of total crime victims in the Western World, her return is going to do nothing to improve that. Perhaps her repatriation should been seen as an impetus to review the laws and systems currently in place for the handling of repeat offenders, and the risks they present to the society around them. A three strikes rule could be just the thing.

Update

The New Zealand Herald newspaper tried to find Ms Toia, only to find that she'd disappeared from her hotel. Staff told them she'd been "intimidating" towards other guests and had run up $860 in international calls. They had no idea of who she really was, nor did they realise the circumstances under which she'd left Australia.

Violent Armed Robbery In North Shore, Auckland

View Larger Map, Westfield Mall from Anzac Street

From an article in the NZ Herald newspaper, 18 Sept 09:

"A gunman punched a woman in the throat during a "brutal, callous and brazenly opportunist" armed robbery of an Auckland hair salon, police said today.

A man with a sawn-off double-barrel shotgun walked into the Rodney Wayne Hairdressing salon in the Westfield Shore City shopping mall in Takapuna, on the North Shore, at 8.15pm yesterday.

There were nine staff and seven clients on the premises at the time.

The offender pointed the shotgun at the receptionist and punched her in the throat, before pointing the weapon at the head of a second female staff member.

He then went to the centre of the salon and held the gun to the shoulder of the manager, demanding cash.

After taking a small amount of money, the offender ran out on to Anzac Street."

It's a deeply shocking and brutal crime and our thoughts are with staff of the hair salon right now, we're hoping the offender is caught and charged within the next day or so.

There has been an alarming rise in the number and frequency of armed and violent robberies in New Zealand, a country often portrayed as "safe" and with a low crime rate. The facts suggest exactly the opposite. Please see the "Armed robberies" and "Stats" links at the head of this page.

Riot At Dunedin Undie 500

Yahoo.nz

"Dunedin police were forced to don riot gear and use pepper spray to disperse student mobs during overnight partying after the controversial Undie 500 rally arrived in the city.

About 20 were arrested after more than 600 people pelted officers with bottles, bricks and bicycle parts in the student stronghold of North Dunedin.

The 70 officers took about two hours to disperse the students.

The annual Undie 500 event, organised by Canterbury University engineering students, involves a pub crawl from Christchurch to Dunedin, in cars worth under $500.

The event has previously caused headaches for Dunedin police left to control riotous behaviour at the end of the trip.

Last year's official Undie 500 was cancelled after rioting in the city resulted in 69 arrests the previous year.

However, an unofficial version of the event still ran and 30 arrests were made after another round of disorder.

Most of last night's action centred in the three blocks around Castle Street, with mobs setting furniture and piles of rubbish on fire in Castle and Leith streets, Dunedin Area Commander Inspector Dave Campbell said.

One officer was hit in the head and knocked down with a hurled bottle, and would have been seriously injured if not for his helmet, he said.

Flying bottles hit two or three other people, who had to be taken away by ambulance for treatment.

Mr Campbell said there would be a boosted police presence this weekend and anyone arrested would gain a criminal record, due to a no-diversion policy.......more here"

Good grief! these are supposedly the elite, most intelligent and able young people on which the future prosperity of New Zealand depends. Heaven help us all, have they nothing better to do? And as for the billion dollar, international student market what right thinking family is going to chose to invest in sending their kids to such a place?

A number of residents were injured during the riot when they were caught in cross fire between the students and police. The city's mayor believes the rioting is symptomatic of the harm alcohol is doing to society

Trial For Libby Templeman's Murder - Date Set

An 8 February 2010 date has been set for the trial of a youth accused of the murder of British schoolgirl Libby Templeman in Kerikeri last year.

The youth, who was aged 14 at the time of the alleged murder, is accused of indecent assault as well as murder.

The trial's scheduled for a 3 week period.

For background see blog post : British schoolgirl murdered in Kerikieri

Bag Snatch in Hamilton, Woman Assaulted

It's been a while since we've reported on a bag snatch but we got to hear of a particularly nasty incident yesterday in Hamilton at the Te Rapa car park at around 12.40 in the afternoon.

An Asian woman was beaten to the ground and her bag stolen by a gang of 4 thugs. A store manager followed them and they were later rounded-up by police at a KFC restaurant.

The four men were said to be aged between 17-21 years old.

Last year there were some really violent assaults on women who were also robbed of their handbags - this type of crime was so frequent it was getting to epidemic proportions. Asian women are often the target as they are perceived as being more affluent and easy to overcome.

In one assault the victim was dragged along behind her attackers' car and in another young mother  Joanne Wang was killed in front of her son in the Manukau Westfield shopping centre.

A police pursuit of an alleged bag thief on an Auckland motorway in January ended with armed police shooting dead an innocent motorist who was caught in crossfire, but no officers were prosecuted after the incident.

See other blog posts here: Handbag snatches

Another School Attack, This Time In Feilding

This is thought to be the fourth such attack this week in what is turning out to be an alarming increase in school violence and disorder in New Zealand. Feilding is approximately 20 km north of Palmerston North :

View Larger Map

By Jonathon Howe- The Manawatu Standard 4 Sept

"Feilding High School principal Roger Menzies has applauded the actions of two students who staved off an attack by a group of outsiders on a fellow pupil.

A 13-year-old boy who was not a Feilding High pupil confronted a Year 9 Feilding High School boy outside the school about 3.20pm on Wednesday.

The 13-year-old turned up at the school with a group of older males, some believed to be in their 20s.The year 9 student was assaulted but two Feilding High boys stepped in to stop the attack.

"Basically there was an assault of a student and our kids went to support him, which was pretty good, I think," Mr Menzies said."It's good to see students helping other kids. Our kids did well to defuse it."

No-one was seriously injured in the after-school brawl, despite one of the outsiders brandishing a tyre iron. Mr Menzies said the reason for the attack was "beyond him" but the Manawatu Standard understands the incident was related to a similar fight at the school on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Menzies said he had given the two boys "a pat on the back" for their efforts.

Staff on duty outside the school grounds before and after school would be keeping an eye out for further trouble, he said. A 17-year-old girl, who saw the fight but did not wish to be named, said the "outsiders" appeared to be a group of skinheads.

The fight took place at the North St bus stops but she said the buses were unable to pull in because the crowd watching the fight was so dense.

"As soon as teachers showed up, it started dispersing. Then police arrived and people were being pulled away."

The 13-year-old assailant has been spoken to by police and will be referred to Youth Aid services. Senior Sergeant Nigel Allan said a 23-year-old Feilding man connected to the incident had been arrested and charged with the possession of an offensive weapon.

He will appear in the Feilding District Court on September 16.

Mr Allan said about 150 students were milling around during the fight but only four or five were involved in it.

"It seems to be an isolated incident and we've had some discussions with the school."

For details on the other attacks see:
Another schoolgirl brawl in Wellington Mall
Bishop Viard College: Second attack in a school this week
Armed teenagers storm Lynfield College and attack student

See also:
Stabbing brings calls for school security
Practical solutions needed to address violence in schools - Says PPTA president
School violence blamed on corporal punishment removal
Racial sensitivity may have caused classroom stabbing
Ryotaro Wright attacked at Forest View High School
Mairehau School goes into lock down as shots fired
NZ schools put children on path to crime
Gang fight at a Wellington school - Hutt Valley High School

For today's posts click here

Auckland Antiques Store Robbed At Gunpoint

TVNZ is breaking a story about an Auckland antiques store being robbed at gunpoint:

"Auckland police are hunting robbers who held-up an antiques store at gunpoint.

At least two men wearing balaclavas and carrying handguns stole around $10,000 worth of jewellery from a store on Dominion Road.

It is believed the robbers then escaped in a stolen courier van.

A police helicopter has been searching the area."

A few days ago the Kiwibank on Dominion Road and King Edward Street was also robbed at around noon on 28 August. And in June a Kiwibank (Mt Roskill) and ASB Bank (Balmoral) both on the long Dominion Road were held up.

View Larger Map

For other armed robberies in NZ this year see: Armed robberies in NZ

15 Year Old Member of YSK Street Gang To Recieve Adult Sentence

From Voxy.co.nz

"Christchurch, Sept 1 NZPA - A 15-year-old ringleader in a vicious street bashing and robbery in Lincoln Road has been sent for sentencing in the adult court after admitting his offending in the Youth Court today.

He is heading for a lengthy prison term -- a sentence the Youth Court cannot impose.

Judge John Strettell declined jurisdiction for the youth, whose name remains suppressed because of Youth Court reporting restrictions. That suppression will be considered again at his District Court sentencing.

"Youth Court can offer you nothing in regard to rehabilitation," the judge said.

"Denunciation and protection of the public are highly relevant to the sentencing process and are best dealt with in the District Court."

The youth was a member of the YSK youth street gang which carried out of the mugging under the Lincoln Road overbridge at 2am on Sunday April 18, robbing youths aged 18 and 19 years who were walking home together.

At least one victim was knocked unconscious when they were attacked with lengths of wood. One had a broken jaw and both had bruises and cuts to the head and face needing stitches.

The police said YSK stood for Young Skuxx Klicxx, a youth gang with between 10 and 20 members.

A 17-year-old schoolboy visiting Christchurch from Tokoroa over the school holidays was the other ringleader of the incident.

Tuari Damyn Karipa-Rangi pleaded guilty in June and is due to be sentenced on Friday. He was the other youth brandishing the wood.

Youth advocate for the boy who admitted the aggravated robbery in court today, Elizabeth Bulger, said a plan had been formulated and agreed for him to be sent for a crown sentencing, but the date available was in December.

Judge Strettell said he would arrange for that to be brought forward, because the delay was too long for such a young offender.

He said it had been an unprovoked attack against two young people.

A prison term for the length likely to be imposed was not available in the Youth Court.

"There needs to be a clear message given that incidents of this type are not tolerated in Christchurch and that those who take part in and are ringleaders, and carry out violence of this type can expect little sympathy from the court.

"That applies to young people of your age as much as any others."

He said the youth's age would be taken into account at the sentencing.

He remanded the boy in custody for two weeks so that an earlier crown sentencing date could be set.

The boy received hugs and kisses from family members before he was led back to the cells."

It's highly likely that at least one of the victims was a tourist and probably wealthy. Some reports state that one of the men said that when he woke up his watch, wallet and passport were missing (the boys were later heard to boast about 'scoring a Rolex' ) however no details about the status or the nationality of the two men have ever been released to the public.

For other posts about gangs in New Zealand click here