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Joel Maxwell / Stuff
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 an appeal, in Wellington Superior Court, from Christopher John Glover against two convictions for intentional damages and one for trespassing related to incidents in late 2019.
The judge also dismissed an appeal against the sentence of 80 hours of community service and $ 170 in repairs.
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.”
John nicholson
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 said that Christopher Glover’s disagreement with the council did not give him the right to ignore an infringement notice. (File photo)
That led to the latest convictions, where the sentencing judge found Glover was photographed at the scene and was responsible 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 road that had been in use 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 a peaceful assembly.
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 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 for issuing the trespass notice.
Just because Glover disagreed with the advice, that didn’t give him the right to ignore the notice.
“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. “
