A month marred by robberies:
MAY: A violent May Day crime was the last straw for Manawatu¯ dairy owners fed up by a string of terrifying robberies at their stores.
The spate of dairy robberies was punctuated by a raid on the Rangiora Minimarket on May 1, which saw a group of six young men storm the Palmerston North shop, kick the 17-year-old attendant in the face and empty the till.
The culprits would eventually be brought to justice, but the crime was the catalyst for Manawatu¯ dairy owners joining forces to lobby the Government and police for more protection for themselves and harsher penalties for offenders.
While violent crime made headlines, so too did crimes of the white collar variety.
In Marton, a 48-year-old woman was charged with allegedly defrauding the Edale Aged Care centre, the only aged care facility in Rangitı¯kei, of $200,000.
The allegations, which are still before the courts, rocked the Edale centre and caused management to ask the district council for a bail out. Though that request was unsuccessful, it later entered into merger talks with the Masonic Village Trust.
In Horowhenua, the seeds of discontent between mayor Michael Feyen and council chief executive David Clapperton again rose to the surface when it was revealed communication between the pair had been severely restricted.
At a meeting in May, Feyen revealed that a ‘‘chief executive relationship committee’’ had been formed in April, which made it mandatory for any formal communication between the pair to be done with other councillors present, despite their offices being just metres apart.
Later in the month, Feyen also gave up on his pursuit to have councillor Ross Campbell reinstated as deputy mayor after failing to gain the support of then-local Government minister Anne Tolley.
May was also the month in which the Palmerston North-based partner of one of Manawatu¯ ’s most controversial residents, David Dougherty, spoke out about his death. Since being acquitted of a rape and abduction conviction in 1997, Dougherty had struggled with alcoholism and legal issues, appearing in court many times on theft and alcohol-related offences.
His death at the age of 50 was hard on his long-time girlfriend, Joann Atutolu, who erected a makeshift shrine to Dougherty at their Palmerston North home. Speaking to the Standard, she said he was never the same man after his wrongful conviction.
Another prominent Palmerston North man who died in May after a battle with illness was Manawatu¯ All Black Doug Rollerson.
A talented fullback and first five-eighth, Rollerson played 24 games for the All Blacks between 1976 and 1981.
The question of whether or not Bunnythorpe’s tiny roundabout was actually a roundabout was answered in May. Signage revealed it to be a roundabout, though it did not stop most motorists from continuing to drive straight over it.
In one of the more interesting court room defences seen in Palmerston North in 2017, a hunter, who was granted permanent name suppression, avoided conviction for shooting another hunter, Jim Morton, by producing a report that said the shot may have ricocheted off a duck’s back.
The lack of a prosecution expert to counter the argument clearly frustrated Morton, who called for the physics behind the ricochet theory to be tested.
It was revealed in May that the notorious Hells Angels biker gang had set up shop in the affluent Palmerston North suburb of Hokowhitu.
Residents on Albert St had mixed feelings about their new neighbours, with some won over by the gang’s promise of a street barbecue and others expressing concerns about noisy parties, burnouts and dogs.