Boneheads attack Tourist

Victim's absence delays hearing
12 September 2006

A heavily tattooed skinhead wearing a T-shirt with "revenge" emblazoned across the front has appeared in court amid tight security, accused of bashing a Canadian tourist.

But the depositions hearing has been adjourned because the Canadian did not board his flight to New Zealand to give evidence.

Jaydon Russell Borland, 31, of Taranaki – who has the words "Nazi" and "skin" tattooed above each eye – smirked from the dock and made hand signals to a skinhead friend yesterday in Lower Hutt District Court.

Justice of the peace Laurence Withy said Borland's friend would be thrown out of court if he disrupted proceedings as six police officers guarded the four accused.

Borland, Mark Alexander Gage, 30, of no fixed abode, Jason George Gregory, 20, of Wainuiomata, and Benjamin Peter McPadden, 18, of Lower Hutt, face joint charges of kidnapping, aggravated robbery and causing grievous bodily harm.

The charges stem from an alleged attack on Jeremie Kawerninski, 25, on April 18 after he was befriended in Wellington and offered a place to stay.

Later, the badly beaten tourist was dumped on a Naenae roadside half-naked with his feet bound and a pillowcase tied over his head after being set upon in a Lower Hutt house and robbed of $40.

He was in hospital for 10 days with a fractured nose, broken ribs, punctured lung and severe bruising.

Mr Kawerninski was to have been the Crown's star witness. Police had arranged for him to return to New Zealand and stay in a hotel for the week-long hearing at their expense. But the case was adjourned after crown prosecutor Cameron Mander told the court Mr Kawerninski had not arrived.

Gage's lawyer, Greg King, said Mr Kawerninski's statement of evidence ran to 75 pages. Defence lawyers wanted to cross-examine him.

Mr Kawerninski had been reluctant to return to New Zealand, and his non-attendance had important ramifications for the case, Mr King said. However, because he had not been summoned, he could not be forced to attend.

The hearing was adjourned 48 hours for police to contact him.

Borland, Gage and Gregory were remanded in custody. McPadden was freed on bail and his image suppressed from publication.