Youth took rifle into Akaroa park

Press, 20 February 1988, Page 6

Youth took rifle into Akaroa park

A youth, aged 15, who took a .22 calibre rifle into the Garden of Tane reserve at Akaroa last month caused the police armed offenders squad to be sent from Christchurch to the township.

He admitted in the Children and Young Persons Court yesterday a charge of unlawfully possessing the rifle.

Judge Fogarty remanded the youth in Social Welfare Department custody to March 24 for a social welfare report

and psychological assessment.

Detective Sergeant R. Homan said a person walking in the Garden of Tane reserve at 9.30 a.m. on January 22 was alarmed at suddenly seeing the defendant with a rifle.

The Akaroa police were notified and the armed offenders squad was sent from Christchurch. The defendant was not found in a search, and the public was kept out of the park for six hours.

At 3.30 p.m., the defendant was seen to walk out of the park, without the rifle.

He admitted having carried the rifle earlier, and took the police to where he had left it, with nine bullets.

The youth told the police he had taken the rifle from his foster parents’ house the night before, to hunt rabbits. The defendant did not hold a firearms licence. He had a previous conviction for an arms offence.