Conviction, sentence for lockdown breach quashed

A Christchurch man who breached lockdown restrictions has had his conviction quashed after saying he was made to look ‘‘as bad as the mosque shooter’’.

Fraser Wright Maddigan, 45, pleaded guilty in the Invercargill District Court in April to breaching the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act after he decided to self-isolate in his car during the level 4 lockdown. He was fined $1000 and ordered to pay $130 court costs.

Maddigan was charged after he left his Christchurch home and travelled to Queenstown. Police stopped him in the Queenstown area and told him to go home.

The following day Maddigan was again spoken to by police near Te Anau. About 9.30am the next day he was arrested on the Te Anau-Milford highway.

His defence lawyer said he had taken all necessary Covid-19 safety precautions.

Judge Bernadette Farnan said it was clear Maddigan took ‘‘a belligerent attitude to police’’ and fined him for the breach.

In August, Maddigan filed a notice to appeal his conviction. He argued police and the court failed to consider he was ‘‘selfisolating in his own way’’. He said police had not been consistent in the way they dealt with people who did not comply with restrictions, and that there was confusion about what they could and could not do at the start of the lockdown.

Maddigan said he was in the process of returning to Christchurch when he was stopped and arrested. ‘‘I believe the prosecutor chose to hide this crucial evidence in an attempt to convince the judge I was equally as bad as the mosque shooter.’’

In considering the appeal, Justice Gerald Nation said he was satisfied Maddigan knew what the allegations were when he pleaded guilty. It was his right to deny the charge and to require police to prove the charge but he surrendered that right.

However, a fundamental error had been made when Maddigan was refused bail.

‘‘What I must decide is whether there would be a miscarriage of justice if Mr Maddigan is to remain convicted and sentenced . . . By a narrow margin, I have decided there would be such a miscarriage,’’ Justice Nation said.

The judge ordered that the conviction and sentence be quashed, and that the charge be referred back to the district court for prosecution. He was remanded on bail until his next appearance at the end of May.