Hutt man threatens MPs with gang shootings
A threat to get every gang member in New Zealand to ‘‘shoot everyone in the offices of every Member of Parliament’’ has landed a Lower Hutt man in court.
Jimmy James Whioke, 58, appeared at Rotorua District Court yesterday via audio-visual link on a charge of attempting to disrupt the country’s civil administration.
Whioke, through his lawyer, Erin Reilly, entered a plea of not guilty. The charge he faces, in full, is that on or before March 14 this year, ‘‘without lawful justification or reasonable excuse and intending to cause a significant disruption to civil administration in New Zealand undertaken by the New Zealand Government, did threaten to get every gang member in the country to shoot everyone in the offices of every Member of Parliament, being an act likely to create a risk to the health of any Member of Parliament’’. Whioke spoke just once during the brief hearing, telling Judge Tony Snell: ‘‘I asked my lawyer to apply for bail.’’
He was told that process could only begin once a suitable address had been approved.
Whioke was remanded in custody until a case review hearing on June 14.
While no details of how the threat was made emerged in court, Stuff understands it was made on March 14, the day before the Christchurch terror attack, and no lockdown procedures were enacted at MPs’ constituency offices.