Youth threatened to kill

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 35

Youth threatened to kill

1 Greymouth reporter A young Hokitika man went home from a hotel and changed out of his best clothes, because he said that he did not want blood on fajem after he decided he would slit a woman’s throat, the police told Judge Costigan in the District Court at Greymouth yesterday. Gary Michael Wilson, aged 18, a factory worker, admitted charges of threatening to kill the woman, assaulting her, and assaulting her using a knife, at Hokitika on June 2.

Sergeant John Shirley said that Wilson had gone to a hotel, where he saw the complainant and her boyfriend. He had bought the male friend a double spirit, and the woman had objected, saying that he had to drive later. “Wilson told her that if

she didn’t, shut up he would hit her,” said Sergeant Shirley.

He had then hit her on the side of the face, and they had to be separated.

The defendant had then moved to drink with other people, but had called back at the woman “I’ll come back and kill you.” He had then left the premises and gone to his home where he changed out of his best clothes into a black T-shirt, and collected a knife, telling his flatmate that he was going back to the hotel to “kill the b....” When he returned to the hotel, he had seen that their car was still parked outside and had hidden behind it. When the complainant’s boyfriend was unlocking the car door, the defendant had jumped out, grabbed the complainant and put

the knife to her throat. Requests by the boyfriend and others for him to stop were unheeded, and finally the licensee came from the hotel and was given the knife. He took the defendant inside until the police arrived. Interviewed by the police, the defendant said that he had been affected by alcohol. Asked why he had gone home first and changed his clothes, he had said that he did not want blood on his best clothes when he “slit her throat," said Sergeant Shirley.

Wilson was convicted and remanded to July 5 for a probation report and sentence. His present curfew hours were amended on the application of counsel, Mr Kevin Taylor, to allow Wilson to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on Thursday and Sunday evenings.