Man acquitted in boy racer case

BY LYN HUMPHREYS

A jury yesterday acquitted Stanley Milne of firing shots at a boy racer's car – but minutes later his wife had the police in her sights.

Heather Milne was angry that police had done nothing to catch the driver who had harassed them for 18 months on their quiet country road.

"We were the victims. He had tormented us for 18 months," Mrs Milne told the Taranaki Daily News.

And despite making numerous complaints, the best police could do was to tell them to get the car's registration.

The car would arrive between one and three in the early mornings. "We knew it was the same car all the time. We knew it was the same driver by the way it was driven."

Several times their miniature horses were injured when they were spooked by the noise and crashed through fences.

And their children were no longer able to ride their bikes along the road for fear of being run over.

It all came to a head on May 17, 2008, when her husband grabbed an air rifle and fired at the car, driven by Scott Wilson, on Plantation Rd, near Egmont Village.

And despite other complaints about Mr Wilson's driving, it took police two months to track him down.

When they finally spoke to him, he said he had been shot at two months previously on Plantation Rd.

"Then he was the goodie-good and the victim and we were the bad eggs," Mrs Milne said.

Her husband was later charged with recklessly discharging a firearm and his legal battles began.

It ended happily for the Milnes yesterday when a jury took only 1 1/2 hours to acquit the 53-year-old crane operator who wanted a quiet life raising miniature horses on the family's small block of land.

A relieved Milne said after the verdict that he now believes the best way to successfully prosecute boy racers was to record them on a good-quality video camera to hand over to police.

"Whatever you do, don't grab a slug gun. It's not worth it," he said.

Milne said it had been a very stressful couple of years, financially and emotionally.

"It's a great relief. We'll try to put it behind us. There's been a lot of strain on our relationship with something like this hanging over our heads."

The family had received a huge amount of support from around the country, the couple said.

But Milne's day in court is not yet over.

He has admitted another charge, that he threatened to shoot the owner of a Honda motorcycle the day before, on May 16, 2008.

His lawyer, Susan Hughes, QC, told the court that when Milne had found out it was a service-man, not the owner, who was trialling the bike on Plantation Rd he had been extremely remorseful.

Milne is to be sentenced on that charge on April 22 following a restorative justice process.

Milne told the Taranaki Daily News there was no way he wanted to talk to Scott Wilson, now 19.

He had not believed Wilson when he told the court he had grown out of being a boy racer.

"But I bear him no malice."

Earlier, in court, Mrs Milne gave evidence for the Crown that she was 100 per cent sure that her husband had shot a slug gun, not a .22, through their trees at Mr Wilson's car that night. Yesterday, the jury was told a slug gun was not classed as a firearm before it retired to consider a verdict.

On Monday, Mr Wilson and his passenger, Sandy Perrett, admitted to the court that they were performing noisy "snakies" and "doughnuts" on their way home to Eltham after a drinking session in New Plymouth. The two teens believed they heard two shots. Mr Wilson told the court how in the next few days he discovered two bullet holes in the back of his car along with two .22 bullets.

But it took him two months before he told police – and only after he was spoken to about more recent boy racer activities.

Mr Wilson declined to talk to the media yesterday.

- © Fairfax NZ News