A Kawerau man has pleaded guilty to charges of possessing and distributing objectionable publications including images of children and bestiality.

The 37-year-old man, who has interim name suppression, appeared before Judge Paul Geoghegan in the Whakatāne District Court on Wednesday.

The man originally faced over 40 charges. Thirty-six were withdrawn by police and the man pleaded guilty to six charges – three relate to the distribution of objectionable videos in 2023 and 2024, and three relate to the possession of objectionable video and images pertaining to child exploitation and bestiality on March 31.

The charges are representative and relate to multiple incidents of the same type over an extended period.

He was remanded at large for sentencing on February 10 with Judge Geoghegan calling for home detention appendices to be prepared.

Home D for multiple assaults

A man who emptied a can of beer over the head of his partner, threw a jandal at her head and strangled her during separate incidents has been sentenced to seven months’ home detention.

Vijesh Singh, 38, was found guilty of assault with intent to injure, strangulation, and assault on a person in a family relationship following a defended hearing before Judge Geoghegan in July.

In sentencing, the judge acknowledged the volatility of the relationship, the eight weeks Singh had spent in custody and the eight months he was subject to a restrictive curfew.

The assault charge related to an incident, which was captured on CCTV, where Singh poured beer over the victim’s head.

There was no injury caused but Judge Geoghegan said the intention had clearly been to humiliate rather than cause injury.

During the strangulation incident, Singh applied pressure to the victim’s neck while they were in a vehicle and freedom camping.

There had been some to-ing and fro-ing between the couple beforehand, and the victim had thrown Singh’s phone out of the car.

“I accept that the incident was one sparked by the dynamics between you and was not premeditated but reactive,” the judge said.

In a subsequent incident while they were travelling to the East Coast, the victim took the car to a beach spot to be on her own, prompting Singh to search for her. When he found her, he threw a heavy weight jandal at her head, hitting her in the left eye.

Judge Geoghegan said it was clear their relationship was marked by a lack of trust and volatility, and Singh’s offending was propelled by feelings of jealously and insecurity.

At the hearing, the judge said the victim acknowledged that some of her actions were not acceptable.

“That can’t excuse what you did to her, but it does provide some context of what happened during a disintegrating relationship.”

He said the pre-sentence report prepared for Singh was one of the more positive he had seen and he was clearly a hard worker with initiative, a good work ethic and plenty of potential.

Judge Geoghegan declined to impose a suggested sentence of community detention, supervision and community work saying he did not consider this suitable.

He said home detention was more appropriate and sentenced him to seven month’s home detention for the strangulation and three months’ home detention for the assault to injure, to be served concurrently. On the assault on a person in a family relationship, Singh was convicted and discharged.

Drink-drive accident

Corey Beattie was sentenced to six months’ community detention and had $3640 in outstanding fines cancelled when he appeared for sentencing on a charge of driving with excess breath alcohol.

He was also disqualified from driving for 13 months.

Beatty, who had four previous drink-driving convictions, was involved in an accident on Pekatahi Bridge on May 13 in which he crashed into the vehicle in front.

Judge said if there was a positive, it was that the reading was low at 440 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath. But on the negative side, there was an accident involved and it would be reasonable to assume that Beattie was affected to some degree by alcohol.

With four previous convictions for drink driving in 1995, 2007, 2010 and 2017, Judge Geoghegan said it astounded him that Beattie would even get into a vehicle after drinking.

‘You’ve got a good future ahead of you’ – judge

Judge Geoghegan acknowledged he was sounding like a “grumpy uncle” as he imparted encouragement and life advice to a 19-year-old appearing for speaking threateningly and breaching bail.

Awhitia Whioke-Nelson had been offered diversion on the charges but failed to connect with police.

When asked why, she said no-one had got in touch with her, but police said she had not responded to calls.

“I know you are young, but when you are in this position, you do the running,” Judge Geoghegan said. “You don’t have the running done for you. You take the initiative to contact the police if they haven’t contacted you.”

He quizzed Whioke-Nelson on what sort of work she wanted to do, and what she was doing to get a job.

On hearing she hoped to work in the hospitality industry, he reminded her that as a bar tender, she would be dealing with people who were behaving in a similar way to what she had on this occasion when she gave a police officer “a bit of a talking to”, and she would be wanting to ring the police herself.

In sentencing her to come up if called upon within 12 months, Judge Geoghegan said, “you have a good future ahead of you; you’ve got to keep going.

“Don’t give up. Sometimes employers will give you a job because they are tired of you knocking on their door. Keep knocking on doors until someone says ‘yes’.”

December case review

Te Rauparaha Morgan has pleaded guilty to breaching his court release conditions by consuming alcohol.

However, the 36-year-old Whakatāne man denies charges of assault, injuring with intent to injure and unlawful intimidation.

He was remanded in custody to appear for case review on December 11.

Callover in Tauranga court

Camille Vaughan Edwards will appear in the Tauranga District Court for callover on March 3 on charges of rape, and indecent assault.

He denies the charges, which relate to alleged incidents that took place in Ōpōtiki in June and December last year.

One burglary admitted

A Te Teko man was admitted burgling a property in Mason Place in Ōhope, but not one in Ocean Road.

Hema George Tukiri, 35, also faces charges of breaching a protection order, assault on a person in a family relationship and breach of court release conditions.

He will next appear in court for case review on December 16.