Mediums charged due to unforeseen circumstances
THEY can’t have been much good as psychics, because they never saw it coming.
Eight people charged with acting as a medium with intent to deceive are among those who have found themselves on the wrong side of this country’s more bizarre laws.
Our archaic legislation covers some strange crimes such as setting traps, defacing money, billsticking, peeping and peering, excreting in public and publishing instructions on how to manufacture explosives.
‘‘I think there is a tendency to say, ‘well we’re not sure we’re never going to need it, so we won’t get rid of it’,’’ University of Canterbury law professor Jeremy Finn said.
Film-maker Taika Waititi technically broke one of our archaic laws in 2000 when, aged 24, he embarked on an art project that involved painting on money.
Under the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989 it’s an offence to ‘‘wilfully deface, disfigure, or mutilate’’ bank notes.
He said he could see the Reserve Bank’s point in trying to protect the currency.
‘‘From a royalist perspective the Queen is like our veteran. But it’s just a piece of paper,’’ said Waititi.
Many of the more arbitrary crimes aren’t policed closely, said Finn. But the law offers a way for lawyers or local authorities to warn against certain actions.
Punishing those who publish DIY guides for explosives, for example, is a way of preventing people from making homemade bombs for fun.
Ministry of Justice figures released under the Official Information Act show that between 2003 and 2013, more than 400 people were charged with peeping and peering, one person for bill-sticking, and eight for acting as a medium with intent to deceive.
The Crimes Act 1961 has been amended dozens of times and slowly the more absurd crimes are weeded out.
‘‘I think it’s long overdue for it to have a complete rewrite,’’ Finn said.
Setting traps, punishable by up to five years in prison, was likely brought in to deter landowners from using dangerous means to catch poachers.
That law resulted in between 2003 and 2013.
Decades ago in Queenstown, a property owner sick of burglaries hooked their electricity mains up to their gate, Finn said.
‘‘A police charges officer who was responding I think there is a tendency to say, ‘well we’re not sure we’re never going to need it, so we won’t get rid of it’. University of Canterbury law professor to a fire alarm got very severe burns.’’
Finn believed a lot of legislation outlived its use partly because decisionmakers simply had bigger things to worry about.
It wasn’t until 1988 that we finally got rid of the 400-year-old Guy Fawkes Day Observance Act, requiring all bishops in Crown territories to preach a stuff.co.nz thanksgiving sermon on November 1 to commemorate the escape of King James I from the 1605 Gunpowder Plot.
The penalty for failing to comply was £5. ‘‘They had to do it,’’ said Finn. ‘‘I don’t know anybody who ever did it, but we didn’t get rid of it until 1988.’’