Skinhead found guilty of threatening juror

 A Lower Hutt skinhead was today found guilty by a High Court jury of trying to corrupt a juror during a white supremacist trial last year.

Lloyd James Bowling, 40, unemployed, sighed and shook his head after a jury took 2½ hours to find him guilty of being party to an attempt to corruptly influence a juror during the High Court trial in Wellington last July.

He was remanded for sentence on May 30, but will appear in Wellington District Court on Friday to be sentenced on another, unrelated, charge of injuring with intent.

During the trial, which began on Monday, the court heard a juror had received a note with "not guilty" in capital letters and a swastika written on it during the trial of four men charged with the kidnap, robbery and assault of a Canadian Indian tourist in April last year.

Three of the defendants in the trial, Jaydon Borland, Jason Gregory and Benjamin McPadden, were found guilty of various charges, while the fourth, Mark Gage, was discharged due to lack of evidence.

On the last day of the trial, the juror – whose identity is suppressed – found the note on his doorstep, was discharged from the jury and later left New Zealand, in part due to concerns over his family's safety.

Crown prosecutor Mark Anderson said the juror was targeted by white supremacist associates of the men as he was not Caucasian.

A search of Bowling's home located pro-nazi paraphernalia and writings and articles about the trial of the men.

Bowling's fingerprint was on the note, and it came from an exercise book he owned. When arrested, he posed a hypothetical question to a police officer, asking what would happen if it emerged he had written the note but not delivered it.

The Crown said this constituted an admission.

Bowling's defence lawyer Keith Jefferies said the Crown had the wrong man, and implicated two other people who also had the motive and means to have sent the note.

Today, Justice Robert Dobson told the jury to put aside feelings of prejudice or sympathy while considering the evidence in the case.

"You may find that anti-Black or anti-Jewish slogans are offensive. You must put any such feelings to one side," he said.

- NZPA