Shaw attacker in jail; rejects bracelet
The man who attacked Green Party co-leader James Shaw on the street has gone to jail.
Paul Harris was found to have punched Shaw five or six times while the politician was walking to work in March outside Wellington’s Botanic Gardens.
He had pleaded guilty to injuring with intent to injure but disputed the facts of the case.
He then admitted it had been an emotional attack on party politics on abortion while he was grieving over a miscarriage in his family.
Wellington District Court judge Ian Mill jailed Harris for nine months.
A probation report had recommended prison after Harris thought the questions were an invasion of his privacy and he would not consent to electronic monitoring. He called a report writer evil.
His lawyer, Marty Robinson, said Harris had viewed the questions as stressing his family and an invasion. He thought it would protect his pregnant wife to not have electronic monitoring but now accepted that going to prison was more problematic.
He said Harris was the sole breadwinner and there was a chance he could be bankrupt.
The judge declined any application to delay the sentencing.
Robinson said Harris was remorseful, having said he was sorry when he spoke to police.
Judge Mill said Harris had been so emotionally aroused he had not been making sense even if he felt strongly about abortion.
‘‘Your lawyer has submitted supervision and community work but I don’t agree with that at all,’’ the judge said.
He said Harris had a personality that contributed to the offending and an inability to change his thinking which was quite fixed about political issues and the rights of children.
‘‘You are entitled to those views but you are not entitled to use violence to express those views.’’
Harris interrupted the sentencing to say he had been speaking for the 50 babies that had lost their lives that day.
The judge said Shaw’s victim impact statement said he was worried that he would be less accessible to the public and that his family and staff had been shocked by the attack.
Judge Mill said he would have considered home detention but instead gave Harris leave to apply for electronic monitoring once he started his jail term.
At an earlier hearing a judge found Harris threw two punches to Shaw’s face, one of which fractured his right eye socket and then when Shaw was on the ground, threw three or four more.
The judge was not satisfied that there had been any kicking.
Harris had told the judge he wanted to talk to Shaw about his party’s abortion policy after his wife had recently miscarried.
He admitted his emotions were running high and that he was at fault.
Harris had seen Shaw walking to work while he was driving past. He did a U-turn and got out of his car.