Ruling may return Filipo case to court
Losi Filipo’s assault case could go back to court 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 yesterday afternoon that district court judge Bruce Davidson made errors in 18-year-old Filipo’s sentencing on assault charges.
Police appealed against Davidson’s ruling, with police lawyer Sally Carter arguing that 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 victim Gregory Morgan’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 to assault after it was indicated to him 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 would go back to court for trial.
Collins found that, although Davidson recorded that Filipo stomped on Morgan on about four occasions, he did not refer to the fact that the stomps were to Morgan’s head and that he was already unconscious, which made the offences particularly serious.
‘‘This is the most disturbing aspect of Losi Filipo’s behaviour. It was potentially lethal conduct and required specific consideration.’’
The evidence was that a conviction would make obtaining a professional rugby contract ‘‘much harder’’, but that was not the same as a ‘‘real and appreciable risk’’ that Filipo would not get a professional rugby contract if convicted, Collins wrote.