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John nicholson
The Waikanae River Estuary, which is located between Waikanae Beach and Otaihanga.
The Kāpiti Coast council hired a private detective to conduct covert surveillance of the native ferns in an attempt to catch the man they suspected of repeatedly plucking them.
Judge Francis Cooke dismissed Christopher John Glover’s appeal, in Wellington Superior Court, against two convictions of intentional harm and one of incident-related trespassing in late 2019.
He also dismissed the appeal against the sentence of 80 hours of community service and reparations of $ 170.
In his decision, the judge said that Glover had a long-standing dispute with the Kāpiti Coast District Council involving reserve lands along the Waikanae River.
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That dispute escalated to involve a private detective, undercover cameras, and damage to private property.
The land in the reserve had been used as a shortcut between Waikanae Beach and Otaihanga, but the council began growing native plants there, which “inhibited the passage.”
Joel Maxwell / Stuff
The Kāpiti coast, north of Wellington.
In 2016, Glover, who wanted the shortcut to remain open, pleaded guilty to intentional damage and being illegally in an enclosed yard after plants were uprooted, cut down and the security light of a neighboring home damaged.
Between the crime of 2016 and August 2019, the police received numerous complaints of damage to plants on the embankment.
“The council employed a private investigator to monitor the property using cameras,” the judge said.
Judge Francis Cooke says Glover’s disagreement with the council did not give him the right to ignore the notice of violation. (File photo)
That led to the latest convictions, where the sentencing judge found Glover was photographed at the scene and liable for damages that included plucking, cutting and spraying flaxseeds and ferns.
In his appeal, Glover said he only intended to protest, and not cause harm, “to keep open and safe” a path that had been used for many years.
Police would not normally charge someone clearing dangling branches from a concrete road, because it was clear it was a road, he said.
A violation notice he received was invalid because it violated his right to peacefully protest, he said.
Glover said illegal entry notices cannot be used to prevent peaceful assemblies.
Dominion-Post
Waikanae, on the north side of the Waikanae River, on the Kāpiti coast.
However, the Crown said that the prosecution’s case was almost entirely uncontested.
Glover was photographed in the area by a “covert camera”, both times the plants were damaged and after he was invaded.
The appeal judge said that the right to protest was not a defense of the crimes of intentional harm. “It does not matter what motivation a defendant may have had to intentionally harm.”
The judge said that given Glover’s previous convictions and the additional arrest for intentional harm, there were legitimate reasons to issue the trespass notice.
The fact that Glover disagreed with the advice did not give him the right to ignore the warning.
“The council is ultimately the body in charge of managing this land. It had the right to decide that the land in question should no longer be used as a public access road. “
