By a reasonably clear margin

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

That’s ok Sonny, we know you meant well. Get on with the rest of your life.

A young man who was filmed punching a 71-year-old woman in the head during the heated Posie Parker counter-protest in Auckland last year has been granted a discharge without conviction and permanent name suppression.

Because men matter and women don’t, you see.

Judge Glubb said the gravity of a conviction on the young man would be out of proportion to the seriousness of his offending.

He fractured her skull. With his fist. In her face.

In a victim impact statement, she told the court that since the assault, she had been unable to go out and interact with people. She could not sleep without taking medication and any noise caused her severe stress, she said. “The crime itself has had a huge impact on my general wellbeing,” she said.

…

“I’m satisfied by a reasonably clear margin a conviction would be out of all proportion to the gravity of the offence,” Judge [Kevin] Glubb said.

I’m honestly astounded that a judge would say that. He’s saying a man punching a woman in the face so hard that he fractures her skull is trivial.

Open season on women. Go ahead, boys, you’re allowed.

Comments

2 responses to “By a reasonably clear margin”

  1. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    For those who can’t access the Herald story

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350200471/man-discharged-without-conviction-after-punching-71-year-old-posie-parker-event

    The man’s lawyer, Emma Priest, said this was a unique set of circumstances that would never be repeated by her client who has ADHD and autism and got caught up in the “frenzied Posie Parker protests”.

    She said a conviction would be out of proportion to his offending and would result in difficulty in the young man gaining employment.

    His ADHD and youth amplified his impulsivity that day. Priest said her client had taken responsibility, was truly remorseful and willing to engage in restorative justice – which was declined.

    Since the offending, he has undertaken 180 hours of volunteer work at the Red Cross, completed the Man Alive programme and counselling sessions, Priest said. The man also offered to pay $1000 in reparation

    IS ADHD, Autism, and youth and excuse for unprovoked assault on someone 45 years older than you? I don’t think so. If he’s truly remorseful and has undertaken substantial and appropriate community work to make amends – that is something that could be taken into account in sentencing. Community work would be a pretty typical sentence for a first offender of a ‘moderate’ assault. Even so, I think he has been very lucky indeed to have no conviction entered against his name. I also don’t think that he should have got name suppression. NZ Courts use this far too liberally in my view. They let him off, the least they could do is allow us all to decide how we interact with him in the future and evaluate his future behaviour.

    Finally, much of that ‘frenzied atmosphere’ was whipped up by NZ media, especially Stuff. Collectively they ran many articles in the weeks leading up to PP’s visit. Universally they took a one sided view. Published untruths and did not correct them. Painted trans people as the most vulnerable ever whom of course we must all support, and painted PP and anyone who wanted to see her as the next best thing to a nazi hate group. Then they tsk tsk when the primed mob turns violent.

    There were many complaints to the media ethics body following these events. The decision acknowledged that coverage had been very one sided, but said that coverage could be balanced over time. That of course has not happened.

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