The judge said customary marine title amounted to an elevated influence in an area and enabled effectively a form of veto, with certain exceptions, over activities in the area needing a new resource consent. Another type of right recognised under the act, protected customary rights, could be granted to more than one group over the same area, she said. A protected customary right was granted for an activity, right, or practice done with a degree of regularity in the area but without the need for exclusivity or occupation that a customary marine title required. It was that type of right she ultimately suggested the Clarkson whānau consider.
RYAN ANDERSON/STUFF
Businessman Leo Molloy was fined and sentenced to community service for breaching name suppression during the Grace Millane trial. The man admitted inciting indecent assault and the woman indecent assault. The assault happened while they were in a vehicle with a friend they partied with regularly. The friend was asleep when the woman grabbed a spoon and tried to put it up his bottom, while the man filmed the incident on his phone. The friend saw the video at a later date. A Court of Appeal date is yet to be set to hear the suppression argument.
In her decision granting permission Justice Jill Mallon accepted a question of law arose. The ministry says the District Court judge wrongly thought Pitt would only have committed an offence if he held himself out as a “registered” osteopath, rather than just an osteopath. But Pitt’s lawyer said the Ministry of Health had taken the District Court judge’s decision on the evidence out of context. Justice Mallon said both positions were arguable, and she thought that the proper legal approach on the point was important. Pitt’s limited culpability and the likelihood of a very minor penalty, if any, would be matters that would be taken into account if the appeal was successful, she said.
RYAN ANDERSON/STUFF
Businessman Leo Molloy was fined and sentenced to community service for breaching name suppression during the Grace Millane trial. The woman admitted indecent assault and the man pleaded guilty to inciting indecent assault in relation to an incident in June 2019. They were in a vehicle with a friend they regularly partied with. The woman tried to put a plastic spoon into the friend’s bottom while he slept, with the man filming and encouraging her actions. The victim awoke wondering what was happening. The duo suggested he use the spoon to eat ice cream. Although they were convicted in the district court, where no application for name suppression was made, their convictions were overturned by Mallon on appeal to the High Court.
And the victim has asked for the automatic suppression accorded to him by law to be lifted so he can speak publicly, including to raise awareness of male survivors of sexual abuse. The incident had been described as a “silly drunken prank” but one of the victim’s concerns was that it would not have been seen that way if the victim had been female. The case concerned an incident when he was passed out, from having alcohol and cannabis, in the backseat of a car in June 2019. Two people he’d been spending a lot of time with were also in the car.