Abduction case appeals rejected

Relevant offers

Crime

Top cop defends police action Partner-bashing man jailed Man arrested on cocaine smuggling charges Urewera Four trial: Boys to be star witnesses 'Urewera four' armed revolutionary leaders - Crown House row sparked mansion killings, court hears Jail for Thailand child sex tours Murder accused wanted to flee Nelson Radical trial system shake-up proposed Man threatened to kill over internet use

The Court of Appeal has dismissed appeals by Dick Headley and his daughter Kay Skelton against their convictions for abducting her son.

Headley and Skelton had pleaded guilty to the abduction when they appeared in the High Court at Hamilton in October 2008 and they were subsequently sentenced to home detention.

Headley took the boy into hiding in Northland bush for six months, and Skelton spent 79 days in prison for contempt of court until Headley returned the boy to Hamilton police station.

On the day before they pleaded guilty in court, they had sought an adjournment because they were awaiting a Supreme Court decision on the refusal to change the venue, because Headley was not legally represented and because of the potential status of a friend of Skelton, Nikala Taylor, as a witness before she had been sentenced for abduction.

But in the judgment released yesterday, Court of Appeal Justices William Young, Mark O'Regan and Terence Arnold said it was perfectly open for Headley and Skelton to have gone to trial and they could have pursued their complaints on appeal if found guilty.

"There is not the slightest indication in papers or indeed what counsel said to us of either appellant having a defence," the judges said.

The appellants' application for a stay was "always a long shot".

"People who commit crimes of a kind which attract high levels of publicity are not thereby immunised from later criminal liability."

- NZPA