Male carer found guilty of abusing two-year-old Former Kiwis international charged with blackmail
A MASTERTON toddler who suffered a life-threatening brain injury was hurt intentionally, a jury has found.
Jason Mark Sutherland, 40, said he had slipped on a wet bathroom floor while holding the boy after finding him face-down in the bath.
Sutherland said that, when he slipped, he fell on the boy, who was aged 2 at the time, and then shook him when he was unresponsive.
But a jury in the Wellington District Court yesterday found Sutherland guilty of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm to the boy, and assaulting an 8-yearold boy, both on March 3, 2014.
Sutherland was remanded in custody for sentencing on August 12.
The identities were suppressed.
The parents of the toddler said after the verdicts were delivered that they were pleased with the jury’s decision.
Although the boy, now 4, was critically injured, he survived. His mother said he was a happy-golucky boy but suffered mood swings. They would know more about his long-term outlook after he started school.
She said she and the boy had been through a lot. He was born with a bowel condition that needed surgery and, as a result, had toileting problems.
On the day the boy was injured, Sutherland had the care of several children, the jury heard. Transport for two of them was delayed, which made Sutherland late getting others to school.
The 8-year-old’s class was already at a school assembly when
of
both
boys he arrived, and the boy was embarrassed to enter the hall after the others.
The boy said Sutherland ‘‘threw him into the hall like a bouncy ball’’. A teacher described seeing the boy ‘‘launched’’ with an open palm thumping on his back. Sutherland said he ‘‘guided’’ him into the hall.
The toddler went to bed for a nap but woke crying, having soiled himself. Sutherland said he put the boy in the bath and then went to the toilet in a separate room.
Sutherland said when he returned to the bathroom, the boy was face down in the bath.
The Crown said it did not know how the boy was injured. However, it said the jury could be sure the boy was injured intentionally, because of the medical evidence of head injury, bleeds in the boy’s eyes, and more than 20 bruises on his face and body.
Sutherland had a ‘‘short fuse’’ on the day of the injury, and had made comments to others that he was sick of the boy.
The defence said the cause of the injuries was just as likely to have been an accident from slipping on the wet floor, followed by Sutherland panicking. FORMER Kiwis international and Canberra Raiders player John Lomax has been arrested and charged with blackmail.
Australian police said the 49-year-old was arrested yesterday morning ‘‘in relation to the Canberra hearings’’ of the royal commission.
He received watchhouse bail and will appear in court next month to answer the charges.
Lomax, now a member and organiser for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in Australia, is listed as a witness to appear before the royal commission into union corruption next week, but it is not known if this will now happen.
Lomax’s father, John Lomax Sr, of Levin, said he had spoken to his son over Skype.
‘‘Apparently it is to do with a painter who claims John forced him into signing an [Enterprise Bargaining Agreement], and his business lost money through doing it. They don’t really know.’’
Lomax Sr said his son was holding up okay, but was worried about the impact on his family.
‘‘I am concerned about him. I think people should know he’s innocent until proven guilty,’’ he said. ‘‘I think he’ll be all right.’’ Lomax started his rugby league career in Wellington before going on to play 65 games for the Raiders from 1993 to 1996, and won the club’s player of the year award in the 1994 premiership-winning season.
However, he missed the 1994 grand final due to suspension.
Lomax then moved to the North Queensland Cowboys and finished his NRL career with the Melbourne Storm.
He played 15 tests for the Kiwis from 1993 to 1998 and in 2012 was named in Wellington Rugby League’s team of the century.
Lomax is the third person to be arrested by police attached to the Royal Commission. He is the second person associated with the ACT CFMEU branch to be taken into custody.
Former organiser Halafihi ‘‘Fihi’’ Kivalu was arrested on Thursday. He has been released on bail after pleading not guilty to two counts of blackmail.
The royal commission heard yesterday that construction company director John Domitrovic was allegedly pressured into writing $30,000 worth of cheques addressed to Kivalu’s wife.
Domitrovic said Kivalu visited his Queanbeyan work site in 2011 demanding $60,000 in cash but he instead offered him $30,000 in cheques.
He said Kivalu asked that the cheques be made out to his wife with the full amount to be paid by Christmas.
Copies of
the
cheques
by
All Kiwi Constructions made out to Halaevalu Maureen Kivalu were received into evidence.
The hearing was also presented with Halaevalu Kivalu’s bank statements, which showed $30,000 worth of deposits, corresponding with the dates on the cheques.
Domitrovic said he wasn’t surprised by the demand, having heard of similar cases in the industry.
But he
was
surprised
Kivalu accepted cheques, given they could be traced. ‘‘[I was] somewhat surprised that Fihi agreed to take a cheque to his wife, that surprised me the most.’’
He said he paid the money to avoid getting on the wrong side of the union.
‘‘It’s a purely business decision for economic reasons,’’ Domitrovic said. ‘‘They could have put a lot of pressure on me on the job.’’
The commission has heard allegations that the union pressured businesses in Canberra to sign its EBA, threatening they would not get work if they did not and using safety checks as an excuse to disrupt their work sites.
The union’s lawyer, John Agius, yesterday rejected the claims, saying safety on construction sites in the ACT was ‘‘appalling’’ and the CFMEU had been a driving force to improve it.