Juror now living overseas because of threat

A juror who was allegedly threatened during a High Court trial last year is now living overseas because he was concerned for his family.

The juror told a jury trial at the High Court in Wellington today, via videolink, he was now living offshore, partly because of a threatening note he had received during a white supremacist kidnapping trial last July.

His name and where he is living are suppressed.

Lloyd James Bowling, 40, unemployed, has pleaded not guilty for being party to an attempt to corruptly influence the juror.

The juror said he had received a note at his home in Lower Hutt on the morning of July 13 last year – the last day of the trial.

At first he had thought the note was a piece of rubbish on his doorstep but after opening it he saw the words "Not Guilty" in capital letters and a swastika sign on it.

He said he had been "very much" concerned for his family.

After telling the court about the note he was taken off the jury and the jury was reduced to 11.

Crown prosecutor Mark Anderson said Bowling's fingerprints had been found on the note.

After police had searched Bowling's Stokes Valley home they had found nazi paraphernalia and clippings about the trial, he said.

Senior document examiner for the police, David Boot, said a lecture pad, found at Bowling's home, had indentations of "Not Guilty" on the front cover.

He said someone had written the words "Not Guilty" at least two times while writing on a piece of paper that had been on top of the front cover of the lecture pad.

Bowling had been an associate of the four men – Jaydon Russell Borland, Jason George Gregory, Mark Alexander Gage and Benjamin Peter McPadden – who were on trial in the High Court last July for kidnapping and robbing Canadian tourist Jeremie Kawerninski in April last year.

Gage was discharged during the trial, and the other three have been sentenced on various charges.

The juror said he had never met or seen Bowling before.

The trial would continue for the next two days.

- NZPA