Four for trial on robbery charge

Press, 8 May 1986, Page 15

Four for trial on robbery charge

Three men and a

woman will face trial by juiy in the High Court on a joint charge of robbing a couple in their home, while armed with offensive weapons, in the early morning of February 3.

After a preliminary hearing lasting two days, Mr J. B. Andersen, and Mrs C. M. Holmes, Justices of the Peace, held there was sufficient evidence to commit the four for trial. The defendants were Christine Maree Ropiha, aged 27, a solo mother (Mr M. J. Knowles), Scobie Koopu Albert Te Poono, aged 23, a contract labourer, Richard Heuheu Moses, aged 27, a bushman, and Terry Paul Taituha, aged 23, unemployed (ail represented by Mr E. Bedo). Ropiha was granted renewed bail and the three men were remanded in custody pending a date for their trial.

Each was jointly charged with one another of robbing the young couple of $llO, a video, a

stereo, cassette tapes and various household items worth $3OOO in all, while armed with offensive weapons.

A fifth defendant facing the same joint charge, Anaru Matthews, aged 24, unemployed, failed to appear when the hearing began on Tuesday and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Mr Knowles reserved the defence for Ropiha.

Mr Bedo reserved his defence in the cases of Taituha and Moses. He submitted in relation to Te Poono that there was no case to answer on the robbery charge. He said the male complainant had admitted that Te Poono had not stolen anything or robbed anybody of property.

There was no evidence that he committed a theft accompanied by violence or threats, or that he was a party to it.

Evidence was that Te Poono was in another part of the house when property was alleged to have been removed.

Sergeant M. J. South

who prosecuted submitted that there was a case for Te Poono to answer. He had been jointly charged and the evidence was quite clear that he had entered the house armed with an axe and held the two complainants on the floor with the axe. Another defendant’s statement was that they had gone there to take property. In evidence yesterday the male complainant told of being at a party with his wife when her handbag was missed, and then found, empty in a car parked outside. While questioning the woman in the car he was told she did not steal it and it must have been her sister, inside the house. The complainant said he got wild and hit the driver’s door with his knee.

He saw his wife, trying to pull Ropiha towards the car, and told her they would get the handbag and leave.

Matthews then arrived. He said it was his car, but that he had not stolen the

handbag. The complainant found under a car seat his children’s combs, which had been in the handbag and got very wild and damaged the car further. He told Matthews to get in his car and leave.

The complainant and his wife then drove home, after they had been told they had better get going because the Mongrel Mob was on the way.

. As a result of what he heard later that day he became concerned and tried to raise $lOOO for the repairs to Matthews’ car and “money for them to leave us alone.”

At 3 a.m. on February 3 he heard a bang at the door and saw Ropiha and a man (not a defendant) at the door. He opened the door because he thought they wanted the money for the car. Ropiha walked to his wife, and then he saw her hitting his wife. He separated them, and then three Maori men entered the house wearing scarves over their faces. One man carried an axe and an-

other a piece of galvanised pipe. The couple were forced to kneel on hands and knees in the hallway, outside the bedroom where their children were sleeping.

The complainant was made to move elsewhere, with a knife at his back, and was asked for pills, medicines, and drugs but said they did not have any. He saw Te Poono holding the axe, with his foot on his wife’s throat

The complainant said he saw Ropiha pulling out drawers, looking through his wife’s belongings. Later he saw her with their stereo and an armful of records, and tapes. The video was also taken but he did not know who took it.

The complainant said he was made to put his head in a fireplace. An axe was held above his head and he closed his eyes, thinking his head was going to be chopped off.

At that stage a remark was made about lights being on across the road,

and the "cops” coming. Te Poono said they wanted the money and Ropiha said $7OO for the car and $5OO for them. He asked how he would get the money to them and was told: “Just have it” Property worth $3500 to $4OOO was taken from the house and $llO from the complainant’s wallet which he had left in the kitchen. The complainant said he raised the money demanded, but did not pay it He reported the matter to the police the day after the incident In cross-examination the complainant said he

kicked the car the first “ time out of frustration ’ because somebody had ■ stolen his wife’s handbag and the second time when he saw his children’s ‘ combs in the car. He had ■ been told by the girl in the car that Ropiha or Matthews must have ; stolen the handbag or > contents. 51 The complainant accepted that he had caused damage to the car. He said he did not see the men take any pro- ’ perty from the house. None of the men "! robbed him or his wife but "they stopped us from ; stopping other people who » were robbing us.”