‘Threat made to cut man’s fingers off’

Press, 26 May 1979, Page 4

‘Threat made to cut man’s fingers off’

Driving home from hist', girl-friend’s place about mid-1 1 ■ night a young man was bailed up. and forced to : drive two strangers around Christchurch, threatened with having fingers ampu- ( tated with a knife, punched in the stomach, and $3 and i his .22 rifle were stolen, Mr Justice Roper and a jury I were told in the Supreme i Court. After deliberating for two 1 hours and three, quarters the jury . found James Neville McKenzie, aged 25, unem- i ployed, guilty on two ! charges of assaulting Norman Leslie Cording, and < with another person robbing him of $3 and a .22 Stirling I rifle. .Both, offences were I committed on October 27. McKenzie was remanded < in custody to May 31 for i sentence. i Mr N. W. Williamson appeared for the Crown, and i

(Mr I. J. D. Hall for McKenzie. Opening his case Mr Williamson said that about .midnight on Friday, October 27, Mr Cording, a freezing W'orker, aged 23, left his girl-friend’s home. As he was driving towards an intersection a blue Vanguard car drove straight towards him on the wrong side of the road. He stopped and started to reverse, but the other car collided with his bumper. The Vanguard continued to follow' him and he reversed up a drivew'ay of a house in Knowles Street. As Mr Cording got out of his car two men got out of the Vanguard and approached him. One of these men was the driver, McKenzie. McKenzie punched Mr Cording, and he and the other man got into Mr Cording’s vehicle and ordered him to drive them to various places. There w<as talk

about taking Mr Cording to the Waimakariri River bed and a knife which could be used on him. The man, who sat in the back seat, kept putting his hands around Mr Cording’s neck.

The man in the back also found Mr Cording’s .22 rifle land he kept dry-firing it. (McKenzie ordered Mr Cor-; I ding to produce his. wallet; (and said that he wanted $5. (There was only $3 in it, sol | he took that. After some time Mr Cording was ordered to drive the two men back to where’ the Vanguard was parked. McKenzie told Mr Cording that if he went to the police] he would “get him.” He then; struck Mr Cording in the! stomach. The other man! took the rifle away with I him. When Detective Constable Rex Barnett w»ent to seel McKenzie he drove up in a blue Vanguard car which, he I said, was owned by his wife, i McKenzie denied any knowledge of the incident in-j volving Mr Cording, Mr Wil-1 liamson said. In his final address to the; jury Mr Hall said that the Crown had not proved that any violence done to Mr Cording was for the purpose of robbery. There were many gaps in the Crown case, particularly on the identification of McKenzie, i