Man was unfit to plead

An intellectually handicapped Auckland man has had 39 criminal convictions overturned, after the High Court ruled he was unfit to plead or stand trial.

Lawrence Christie’s offending between September 1995 and October 2015 ranged from acts or threats of violence toward his partner or members of his family to burglary, wilful damage, possession of an offensive weapon and disorderly behaviour.

Christie suffers from an intellectual disability, likely linked to a brain injury he suffered when he was 5 years old.

In August, Justice Graham Lang quashed Christie’s 39 convictions after assessing several psychiatric reports on Christie at the time of his offending. Many court and police files relating to Christie’s offending could not be found. However,

Lang said reports prepared between May 1994 and February 2004 provided a consistent insight into how Christie’s intellectual disability affected his ability to stand trial. The report from May 1994 said Christie was ‘‘suggestible’’, which was likely to be a problem in court. ‘‘If he is asked a line of questions ... he may simply give answers that he thinks will please the questioner and so incriminate himself without regard to the truth.’’

Another psychiatric assessment report, dated November 1995, said Christie had limited comprehension and was ‘‘quite slow’’. ‘‘It would be difficult, I suspect, to follow evidence against him if it was given in court,’’ the report said.

A report from November 2016 by a registered clinical psychologist, recorded that Christie had a basic understanding of the trial but said he remained suggestible, and was likely to say what he thought others expected or wanted to hear. Lang’s ruling said those observations mirrored those made consistently by health professionals since 1994.

‘‘I am satisfied ... that the material contained in the psychiatric reports prepared between 1994 and 2016 confirm it is unlikely that Mr Christie has been fit to plead for the whole of that period.’’