By: Larry Williams | Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Police Shooting

Police have been heavily criticised by the IPCA over the shooting of Halatau Naitoko on Auckland’s Northern Motorway.

They made a series of mistakes when they were going after Stephen McDonald.

The police deeply regret shooting the young man.

They were dealing with a drugged up gunman, and indeed the court found that it was McDonald who caused this shooting. The environment was complex, stressful, evolving rapidly - but the cops got it wrong.

The family’s lawyer is now seeking compensation. I think that is fair enough.

Collins

Judith Collins’ decision to pay for her own court action in respect of her defamation claim against Trevor Mallard and Andrew Little is a blow to the left.

They had been banking on the taxpayer having to pay.

Collins is not that stupid. That would not have been a good look when the person who has the most to gain is Collins herself.

Labour is claiming that any court action will be like an inquiry. I think this is designed to put Collins off. I think they underestimate Collins.

Mallard and Little can either retract and apologise or prove their allegations are accurate in court. I note they don't appear to have any intention of doing so. It’s their call.

You would expect Collins to carry through on her action.

Cairns

Cairns was awarded 90,000 damages but Modi is making application to the court of appeal to overturn the verdict.

Modi may not be successful but it puts the Cairns match fixing allegation back in the public spotlight.

There is now more at stake than for Cairns than his reputation.

There's a few million pounds if he was to eventually lose.

Mind you, Modi would have to bring more to the table than the last time round.

Sharma

Further evidence that the judges in this country are operating on the same page.

Last week Callaghan got 13 years for bashing Carmen Thomas with a baseball bat then cutting her up into eight pieces.

Today, Diwesh Sharma got 14 and a half years non-parole period for killing his wife Ranjeeta by burning her alive.