Prison time for Filipo ‘absurd’
Jail time for Losi Filipo ‘‘just seems frankly absurd’’, the defence lawyer for the Wellington rugby player has argued.
Filipo, 18, is at the centre of a police appeal after a judge discharged him without conviction on four violence charges.
Justice David Collins has reserved his decision in the High Court at Wellington yesterday as police challenged the district court decision. Filipo was not present in court.
The police case focused on how he stomped on the head of one of his victims, with counsel for the police arguing that the sentencing judge, Bruce Davidson, ‘‘glossed over’’ the scale of the violence.
The Crown is seeking a starting point of 3 to 31⁄2 years’ imprisonment for Filipo’s offending against his four victims, two of whom were women.
But Noel Sainsbury, for Filipo, said Davidson made a ‘‘considered, correct and compassionate decision’’ to discharge him.
He also said Wellington Rugby’s initial support of Filipo was responsible – as the aim in supporting a young man in trouble was surely to guarantee there would be no ‘‘runaway train’’ repeat of the incident.
‘‘They are to be commended for that support that they have put around him, rather than just walking away because it might be embarrassing. They have done the right thing.
‘‘What we have is a man from a disadvantaged background . . . who was lucky people saw his potential and gave him a chance,’’ Sainsbury told Collins yesterday.
Davidson had seen Filipo’s ‘‘dire prospects growing up in a gang area in Waitangirua [a suburb of Porirua]’’, he continued.
Details of the assault in the early hours of October 11, 2015, and of Filipo’s discharge, caused an outcry when they emerged on September 26.
Filipo’s Wellington Lions rugby contract was ended by mutual agreement in the aftermath.
The solicitor-general stepped in to review the case, leading to a decision that police should appeal against the discharge.
Sainsbury said Davidson had seen that the gravity of the assaults were mitigated by Filipo’s offer to pay reparation and engage in restorative justice, as well as his guilty plea.
The judge also took into account his youth, showing the courts were ‘‘finally starting to perhaps get into the 21st century with our approach to things’’.
Earlier in the appeal hearing, Sally Carter, for police, said the Crown challenge was based on, firstly, that ‘‘the judge erred in properly determining the gravity of the offence’’, and secondly, that he gave too much emphasis to the consequences of the conviction.
She argued the sentencing judge ‘‘glossed over quite how the incident started’’. In discharging Filipo without conviction, Davidson had called it ‘‘seemingly unprovoked’’ – the Crown said it was definitely unprovoked, Carter argued.
Filipo maintained he did not intend to hit the women, but they said he did. And he accepted that being in a situation where others were injured by his actions was unacceptable, which was why he pleaded guilty, Sainsbury said.
‘‘Better to just front that - and that’s what he did. You’re there throwing punches, someone else gets hit; you’re responsible.’’
But Filipo had stomped on the head of one victim, Greg Morgan. That was serious violence, and the judge had ‘‘glossed over’’ that, Carter argued.
Issues had been raised that it was a ‘‘media-run appeal’’, but the appeal had been taken up by the Crown on the merits of the case, Carter said.