More firearms charges laid against former Southland rugby player
1 Feb, 2021 05:01 PM
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Pita Wilson was remanded in custody to reappear in the Christchurch District Court via audiovisual link on February 15. Photo / Otago Daily Times
Otago Daily Times
By: Jared Morgan
A 44-year-old former Southland rugby representative s history of playing catch and release with the law has again resulted in his arrest.
Pita William Hapurona Wilson, stonemason, of Invercargill, twice appeared in the Christchurch District Court via audiovisual link yesterday following his arrest on Sunday.
Police were searching for Wilson when they found a suspected car-boot meth lab at the Ashford Motor Lodge in Papanui Rd, Christchurch.
John Hawkins/Stuff
Former animal control officer Michael Murdoch has been fined $1500 for breaching the Covid-19 national lockdown rules. (File photo)
An Invercargill animal control officer who licked his fingers and wiped them down his workplace reception window the day he was told he had recovered from Covid-19 has lost his job and been fined $1500. Michael James Murdoch, who had interim name suppression, appeared in the Invercargill District Court on Thursday for sentencing on a charge of failing to comply with a medical officer of health requirement to stay at home unless it was for essential personal movement or an essential permitted movement.
Man charged over Southland double fatal car crash
23 Jan, 2021 04:35 AM
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Road closures from the fatal crash last September which killed a young father and his five-month-old baby. Photo / File
Road closures from the fatal crash last September which killed a young father and his five-month-old baby. Photo / File
Otago Daily Times
By: Abbey Palmer / Otago Daily Times
Charges have been laid in relation to a double fatal car crash in Southland which killed a young father and his five-month-old baby.
Emergency services rushed to the scene of the four-vehicle collision on September 2 last year on the Winton-Lorneville Highway just after 4pm.
After a relationship break-down, he began self-medicating with alcohol and drugs, the judge said. When police searched his house in May 2020, they found $2760 cash, five mobile phones, a diary tick-list of deals and debts, LSD tabs, two bags of what was believed to be ketamine, cannabis grinders, scales and zip lock bags, Judge Walker said. The diary had a heading “time to sort my life out, get a job in Auckland”, the judge said. Police found evidence of drug dealing on a phone, including a message sent to 15 people saying Elston was out of cannabis because of the Covid-19 lockdown, but still had ketamine and ecstasy.
There were LED lights, fans, temperature and humidity meters, a dehumidifier, a carbon extraction fan and numerous plastic bottles with nutrients for the plants. Police were called to the house on October 17, 2020 in response to a family harm incident, when a strong smell of cannabis led them to the garage, the summary says. The next day Batchelor admitted to police he was cultivating the cannabis. He told the police he enjoyed working with the cannabis plants and the financial side of selling it was just a bonus, the summary says. Batchelor had a three-stage operation with 20 clones and 13 plants at the vegetative stage in one tent and 18 more advanced cannabis plants growing in soil in another tent.