|
Thursday, 29 July 2010 |
|
 Waiheke community board member Nobilangelo Ceramalus told Gulf News this week that he has been advised to file an appeal after being found guilty early this week of assaulting one of two boys he found on his property on 25 May of this year.
The boys, one aged 14 at the time of the incident and the other aged 15, gave evidence of taking two dogs, one a chihuahua and the other a Chinese crested dog, for a walk on tracks through bush below Te Whau Drive and of following the escaped chihuahua onto Mr Ceramalus’s property. One said he recognised the community board member from newspaper photographs.
The 14-year-old described picking up the dog and walking off as Mr Ceramalus “yelled at us what the hell were we doing on his property. He was waving his arms around, yelling at us to get off his property.
“I saw him pick up a stick and when I started to walk faster he whacked me on the head,” he said. He did not see the blow but described turning to watch as a stick, which was two feet long and two inches thick, was picked up. He said he then stumbled into a tree after he was hit on the back of his head. “I turned around and said: ‘you cannot hit a child on the head with a stick’. He (Mr Ceramalus) said: ‘It doesn’t matter because it would never hold up in court’.”
Both boys described having the dogs in their arms and climbing a track with the older boy in the lead. He described hearing his friend say ‘ouch’ but did not see a blow to the head. Both boys were facing away from the landowner and walking uphill.
Waiheke constable Justin Moore was told of the incident two days later and chiropractor Dr Randal Farrant was consulted two days after that.
Under cross examination by Mr Ceramalus, who defended himself, Dr Farrant conceded that although the tenderness at the crown and along the parietal suture and pain in the neck and back were consistent with the incident as recounted to him by the victim’s parent, it could have also resulted from a slip, trip or fall.
Mr Ceramalus elected not to give evidence and depended on a series of cross examination questions that challenged the veracity of the testimony of the youths. He suggested possible motives might have included revenge on an adult who had told them off for trespass.
However Judge Greg Davis found the evidence of the youths was neither fanciful nor unreliable and that the witnesses were credible. Small discrepancies and their ready admission of their inability to readily recall the stick or which hand it was that Mr Ceramalus used to hold it was evidence that they had not been prompted or coached by others in the matters of the complaint, he said.
Judge Davis found the alleged assault was a deliberate act and the assault was proved beyond reasonable doubt.
Waiheke community board chairman Tony Sears says the court verdict does not affect Mr Ceramalus’s status on the board. Liz Waters |
