Teenage burglar’s family say verdict really sad
A family member of a teenage burglar whose finger was cut off says the boy had the mental age of a 10-year-old, and it is ‘‘disgusting’’ the father and son responsible were found not guilty.
William (Bill) Burr was found not guilty on six charges and Shaun Burr was found not guilty on four charges after arguing self defence at a trial in the High Court at Hamilton on Wednesday.
The trial divided the small and rural Waitomo town of Piopio where the incident happened, with some saying they could not be more happy with the result, and others being horrified and disappointed.
The Burrs declined to talk immediately after the verdict on Wednesday, saying they needed to be with family and well-wishers.
They were not home when Stuff visited yesterday. A tattered Trump sign hung high on a pole facing the road on the family dairy farm in the heart of the King Country.
People in the farming township were nervous about speaking out – it was a small community and word travelled fast, they said.
‘‘It is an injustice,’’ a family member of the teen, who spoke on the basis of anonymity, said. ‘‘I am not happy.’’
The jury of three women and nine men heard how Bill Burr was woken by would-be burglars in his King Country home in October 2020. The teenager, who was 17 at the time and has name suppression, had stolen three other cars from Burr and breached bail to come back with his girlfriend for a fourth attempt.
After being hit on the head with a wine bottle, Burr got his gun and marched the pair into the kitchen, before his son, Shaun, arrived.
The teen’s relative said breaking into Burr’s house to steal his car was wrong and there should have been consequences but the teenager did not deserve the ‘‘horrific’’ violence that came next. He was punched, struck with a piece of wood, and the tip of his finger was cut off.
‘‘It is sad, it is really sad,’’ the woman said.
She described the teenager as ‘‘simple-minded’’, with the mental age of a 10-year-old. He had ADHD and was medicated for most of his childhood.
She said he would have struggled to understand the court process and she was saddened the boy had to go through the trial without the support of his family.
They had stuck by him throughout the past year but as soon as he became an adult in the justice system, the family felt left in the dark.
They was not informed about the trial, she said. They found out on Wednesday after news of the verdict flooded social media, she claimed.
A woman, who lived near the Burrs, said she hoped the verdict would not set a precedent where people started taking things into their own hands.
She was shocked by the outcome of the trial and said the Burrs should have faced some consequences.
However, another woman, who lived down the road from one of the three Burr properties, said she could not be happier with the result.
‘‘I am fed up with people thinking they can get away with s...’’
She said the boy had broken into Burr’s house three times before.
‘‘I would want to be defending
myself too. Imagine being woken up like that, I am happy.’’ ‘‘Enough is enough.’’
Her property had been burgled twice in the past few years, so she said she knew how it felt to have your privacy invaded.
‘‘Some people think they went over the top but I am pleased.’’
A different woman who lived nearby said she thought it was good the Burrs had got off.
‘‘If I had been broken into four times, my husband would probably do something too.’’
She said it must have been terrifying being woken up in the middle of the night by burglars in your bedroom.
‘‘You would not know how you would react until faced with a life or death situation like that,’’ she said.
Waitomo mayor John Robertson said the courts had made their decision and it was not for him to pick a side.
‘‘That is the way the justice system works.’’
William and Shaun Burr were charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and wounding with intent to injure, maiming with intent to injure, and maiming with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
William Burr was also charged with assaulting a female and assaulting with intent to injure.
The pair were found not guilty on all charges.