Jail term for biting off officer’s finger

Press, 14 May 1985, Page 4

Jail term for biting off officer’s finger

PA Auckland A man was sentenced to 15 months jail, fined $2OOO, and disqualified from driving for two years when he appeared for sentence in the High Court at Auckland after being convicted for biting off a traffic officer’s fingertip. John Wickham Steer, aged 26, unemployed, of Glenfield, had been found guilty by a jury last month of biting off the fingertip with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. The charge arose after Steer was stopped near Albany, north of Auckland, on August 23. In an ensuing scuffle, the officer’s fingertip was bitten off.

Mr Justice Barker told Steer he totally agreed with the jury’s verdict. He said he accepted the evidence of the traffic officer, Robert Bruce Lindsay, that Steer

bit his finger again when he called out after he was bitten a first time. His Honour said medical evidence at the trial was that considerable force was needed to cause such an injury. Steer’s two-year disqualification from driving was tc be inclusive of his present term of disqualification imposed in the District Court.

His Honour ordered that half of the $2OOO fine be paid to Traffic Officer Lindsay. Defence counsel, Mr Hugh Fulton, submitted that Steer did not intend the injury. He said that the injury was inflicted in a highly provocative situation in which the traffic officers involved exhibited a less than good example of law enforcement.