Mace, shotgun taken to tavern brawl

Press, 11 October 1982, Page 12

Mace, shotgun taken to tavern brawl

PA Dunedin Four gang members were jailed for up to two years when they appeared for sentence in the District Court at Dunedin after a Dunedin hotel brawl in which a shotgun and a mace were used.

Patrick Gordon Mason, aged 19, an unemployed forestry . worker, Thomas Homaki Wiparata, aged 22, an unemployed labourer, John Anthony Wiparata, aged 25, an unemployed concrete labourer, and William Whare (also known as David Waipapa), aged 20, an unemployed cleaner had pleaded guilty to joint indictable charges arising from the brawl.

The charges included $1865 damage, unlawful assembly, and injuring with reckless disregard for the safety of others. Mason also admitted an indictable charge of possessing a sawn-off shotgun without authority. Judge Murray said the mace used in the brawl was one of the most vicious weapons he had seen pro-

duced in court. Mason and John Wiparata were sentenced to two years imprisonment on the charges of wilful damage and injuring with reckless disregard for the safety of others. Thomas Wiparata and Whare were sentenced to a year's jail on these charges. Mason was also sentenced to two years imprisonment on the charge of unlawful possession a shotgun and all were sentenced to six months imprisonment on the charge of unlawful assembly. All the prison terms are to be served concurrently and aree to be followed by 12 months probation.

Whare w r as also sentenced to two months imprisonment, cumulative on the one-year term on charges of driving with excess blood-alcohol and obstructing a traffic officer in Christchurch on June 28.

He was disqualified from driving for 12 months on the blood-alcohol charges and convicted and discharged on a charge of failing to accompany a traffic officer.