Brother of politician up on sex charges
Lawyers last night won an injunction barring the Sunday Star-Times from naming a Cabinet minister whose brother faces serious charges.
A BROTHER of a Cabinet minister is due to appear in court this week on child-indecency charges.
The Sunday Star-Times can reveal the man has been summonsed to appear in the district court on Tuesday – but his lawyer, high-powered Queen’s Counsel Jonathan Eaton, last night went to the High Court at Christchurch to obtain an injunction stopping the paper naming the man or identifying the minister concerned.
The minister did not respond yesterday to questions about whether he would stand down while the case was before the court.
Prime Minister John Key, who was at the National Party regional conference in Waitangi, also failed to respond to questions about whether he would stand the minister down from Cabinet.
This year, Labour social development spokeswoman Carmel Sepuloni stepped aside while her mother was before the courts on benefit fraud charges.
A family member of the sex accused said the matter was in the hands of defence lawyers.
Yesterday, the accused man’s barrister, John Westgate, said it would be ‘‘entirely inappropriate’’ to name the man, as it would undermine his ability to apply for name suppression.
The newspaper gave an assurance that it would not identify the man before he appeared in court – at which point the lawyer threatened an injunction if the Cabinet minister was named.
Westgate said he could understand the public interest. ‘‘Oh look, fascinating . . . but you can also appreciate that when somebody in that situation is facing charges, they have the right to avail themselves of what the legislation allows.’’
Westgate would not comment on whether his client would be defending the charges.
Last night, Justice David Gendall imposed an interim injunction preventing the newspaper naming the accused and the relationship to the Cabinet minister.
The Sunday Star- Times asked to be heard by the court but the judge granted the injunction without giving the newspaper’s lawyer that opportunity.
The accused man works as a community leader. It is unclear if he has been stood down from that role. His boss refused to comment.