Ministry of Health
Fraser Wright Maddigan pleaded guilty last year to breaching the level 4 lockdown restrictions by leaving his home and self-isolating in his car. (File photo)
A Christchurch man who breached the country’s lockdown restrictions has had his conviction quashed, after saying he was made to look “as bad as the mosque shooter”. Fraser Wright Maddigan, 45, pleaded guilty in the Invercargill District Court in April to breaching the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act after he decided to self-isolate in his car during the level 4 lockdown. He was fined $1000 and ordered to pay $130 court costs. Maddigan was charged after he left his home in Christchurch during the lockdown and travelled to Queenstown. He was stopped by police in the Queenstown area where police gave him an “educational” directive about the Covid-19 restrictions and told him to go home.
Man who flouted Covid-19 lockdown rules has conviction quashed after error
12 May, 2021 04:37 AM
3 minutes to read
Fraser Wright Maddigan was charged after being found in his car in Queenstown on March 30 last year. Photo / 123RF
Fraser Wright Maddigan was charged after being found in his car in Queenstown on March 30 last year. Photo / 123RF
Otago Daily Times
By: Karen Pasco
A man who flouted Covid-19 lockdown rules in the southern region has had his conviction quashed after a fundamental error was made by a duty solicitor and judge.
Fraser Wright Maddigan pleaded guilty to breaching the Civil Defence Emergency Act 2002 when he appeared before Judge Bernadette Farnan on April 2 last year in the Invercargill District Court.
Invercargill police area manager Mike Bowman believed legislative settings, introduced in late 2018, were the main reason for the increase in reported assaults. The reported assaults had increased nationwide since the introduction of new family violence offences, including strangulation and assault on a person in a family relationship, he said. But Invercargill Women’s Refuge service co-ordinator Cathy Robertson said they were busier than normal, and she put much of that down to increased methamphetamine use in the community. “I think it’s a real issue out there. People have said it’s definitely brought problems into their homes. “Women get to a stage where they just can’t cope with [less] money and the moods and the violence that goes with it.”