SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.
Mason’s assault conviction quashed – NZPA
A Christchurch musician has successfully had his conviction for assaulting his four-year-old son quashed by the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court said today there would be no retrial ordered.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10685029 [Read more…]
Christchurch father Jimmy Mason has been given leave to appeal by the Supreme Court. The 51-year-old was sentenced to nine months supervision and ordered to undergo anger management courses after a jury found him guilty of assaulting one of his two children. The case was widely seen as a test of the anti-smacking laws as Mason publicly claimed he’d done no more than flick his son’s ear.
The Supreme Court has just announced it will permit him to appeal his conviction on the grounds that combining two allegations in a single count resulted in a miscarriage of justice. The two allegations are punching a child and pulling his ear.