Appeal by tour rioters fails

Press, 19 November 1982, Page 18

Appeal by tour rioters fails

PA Wellington “Civil disobedience, showing a contempt for the law and the democratic right of other citizens, must be condemned and in an unmistakably effective way, as totally unacceptable in the New Zealand community,” the Court of Appeal has said. It made the statement in a judgment delivered, yesterday in which appeals against 12-month prison sentences imposed on four appellants convicted of riot during the third Springbok rugby test at Eden Park, Auckland, oh September 12 last year, were dismissed.

“We do not accept the suggestion of police provocation. It seems obvious, and was substantially common ground at the hearing, in this court that the ultimate objective of the demonstrators was to get to Eden Park and disrupt the test match. “This was much more than lawful protest and much more than was necessary to demonstrate anti-apartheid views, however strongly those views are held by some of the appellants,” the judgment said. The court, comprising Mr Justice Cooke, Mr Justice McMullin, and Mr Justice On'gley, dismissed appeals against conviction by Leslie Ruibin Howe, aged 21, Tigilau Ness, aged 27, Michael John Oldenampsen, aged 20, and Tainui Joyal (Johal) Pene, aged 25. An appeal by Maudie Hinegare Hogan, aged 20, against conviction was allowed, and a verdict of ac-

quittai was entered in respect of her. An appeal by Lane Phillip Gurnick, aged 20, against sentence was allowed, the sentence being reduced from 12 to eight months. Appeals by the remaining four against 12-month jail sentences were dismissed.

The charges arose from a confrontation between the police and demonstrators in Onslow Road, Auckland, on the day, of the test. How 6, Ness, Oldenampsen, and Pene could not claim records as responsible citizens but Gurnick was in a different category, the judgment said.

Referring to Hogan’s appeal against conviction, the judgment said the court did not think the summing-up by the trial judge adequately focused on the particular problems which, on the evidence; arose in her case.