Car thief acquitted of kidnap

A second man has been acquitted of kidnapping a three-year-old boy who was in the back seat of a stolen car, with a Wellington jury deciding he had no idea the child was there.

Evani Kamoto, 19, unemployed, was found not guilty of kidnapping Alan Baxter, who had been left in his car seat in his father's car in an Alicetown driveway while his father went to collect a friend in September last year.

Shane Baxter came out to find the car being driven away with his sleeping son still in the back.

Kamoto, along with Henry Tauti, pleaded guilty to abandoning the child, theft and unlawfully taking a motor vehicle. He will be sentenced on those charges on October 9. Tauti had the charge of kidnapping discharged by the judge on Thursday.

Wellington District Court judge Chris Tuohy told the jury yesterday that any case with a child raised emotions and it would be natural to be upset but they had to put that aside and not let it cloud their judgment.

He said they had to find that Kamoto meant to detain the boy, but only if he knew the child was in the car.

Defence lawyer Chris Nicholls said it was possible Kamoto did not see the child, he didn't look in the back seat and was hyped up. "If he had known the boy was there he wouldn't have nicked it."

Crown prosecutor Ian Murray said it was hard to believe that someone who was driving the car around for more than an hour did not see the child less than a metre from him.

He said it was pure luck that led a resident to find the boy, still asleep in the back seat, after the car was abandoned in Stamford Gr, Lower Hutt.

- © Fairfax NZ News