New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Discharge without conviction (s106/s107)

Legal area

Court

5 May 2021

ALLEN v THE NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2021] NZHC 981

Citation

[2021] NZHC 981
Court

High Court

The High Court found the District Court judge did not make a material error: objectively the assault was serious in the COVID-19 context and given the victim's compromised immune system, and after accounting for mitigation the gravity was assessed as moderate; the appellant failed to prove the direct or indirect consequences (loss of Dutch citizenship/passport or significant mental health or employment impacts) were shown to be out of all proportion to that gravity; accordingly the appeal was dismissed, leave to lodge out of time was granted, and suppression of the victim's identity ordered.
17 Sept 2019

BROWN v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2019] NZHC 2348

Citation

[2019] NZHC 2348
Court

High Court

The appeal is dismissed: the High Court upheld the District Court's credibility findings and conviction because the trial judge was entitled to accept the officers' account and there was no miscarriage of justice from judicial questioning; although the District Court erred by not expressly addressing some mitigating personal factors, the appellate court concluded the consequences of conviction were not out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending and accordingly affirmed the refusal of a discharge without conviction.
9 Aug 2019

UDE-SHANKAR v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2019] NZHC 1938

Citation

[2019] NZHC 1938
Court

High Court

The High Court concluded the District Court correctly assessed the offending as moderately serious, properly considered mitigating factors and previous convictions, and correctly found the direct and indirect consequences of conviction were not out of all proportion to the gravity of the offence under s107; the proposed affidavits were not sufficiently fresh to admit on appeal; the appellant failed to show the high threshold of extreme hardship required for name suppression under s200 CPA; appeal dismissed.
5 Jun 2019

WILSON v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2019] NZHC 1252

Citation

[2019] NZHC 1252
Court

High Court

The High Court dismissed the appeal: the District Court correctly found both assaults proved; s59 did not justify the conduct because the acts were corrective or unreasonable; there was no miscarriage of justice; and the direct and indirect consequences of conviction were not out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending under s107, so the refusal to discharge without conviction was upheld.

New Zealand Case Law

ALLEN v THE NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2021] NZHC 981

BROWN v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2019] NZHC 2348

UDE-SHANKAR v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2019] NZHC 1938

WILSON v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2019] NZHC 1252