Discharge overturned

Losi Filipo’s assault case could be reheard after a judge overturned the Wellington rugby player’s discharge without conviction.

Justice David Collins, in the High Court at Wellington, found in a judgment published on Thursday afternoon that district court judge Bruce Davidson made errors in the 18-year-old’s sentencing on assault charges.

Police appealed Davidson’s ruling, with police lawyer Sally Carter arguing Davidson ‘‘glossed over’’ the scale of the violence involved when Filipo attacked four people, including two women, on a night out in Wellington.

Collins’ judgment centred on three errors by Davidson.

They were Filipo’s role as instigator of the violence; the fact he stomped on a victim’s head four times, including at least once when he was unconscious and vulnerable; and that Davidson erred in his judgment of the seriousness of the consequences of a conviction. Filipo pleaded guilty after it was indicated that, if he did so, he would receive a discharge without conviction. He will now be given the opportunity to vacate his guilty plea, meaning the case could be reheard. - Fairfax NZ