Heke’s case may be struck out

Former street protester Lewis Stanton’s long-running civil case claiming more than $900,000 in damages against the Nelson City Council and the police is on shaky ground.

A High Court judge has given him until August 7 to file an amended statement of claim providing specific grounds for his allegations or the case will be thrown out.

The case, first filed in January 2017, alleges that the council, and later the police, wrongly and unfairly targeted Stanton, also known as Hone Ma Heke, in a campaign to get him out of central Nelson, where his nomadic lifestyle involved a horse-drawn cart.

Part of the claim centres on the council’s blanket trespass order against him in 2011, which was quashed by the courts. He later camped on Trafalgar St in a long-running protest against the council, which ended with a peace deal, including a joint apology, in November 2017.

He is now living in a gypsystyle wagon he built with the help of volunteers. Stanton’s latest revised claim includes seven causes of action against the council, two of which also involve the police. He is claiming a total of $925,000 in damages.

But in a High Court decision this month, Associate Judge Paulsen said Heke’s claims were deficient because they made only general allegations about breaches of the Bill of Rights and abuses of public office.

They did not identify council officials alleged to have been responsible, or how they acted unlawfully.

Heke’s claims over alleged malicious prosecutions for obstruction of the Trafalgar St footpath during his vigil were not sufficient or proper because he did not know if, or how, the council was involved.

They also did not say how his rights had been allegedly breached.