TOP STORY: Judge - Culture no excuse

Reon Suddaby
A district court judge has slammed the New Zealand Probation Service's findings that a young Maori man who carried out a brutal street assault in Flaxmere may have done so out of "social obligation".
The comments were made by Judge Tony Adeane in the Hastings District Court last week, at the sentencing of Joshua Winiata Keil, 17, unemployed.
Judge Adeane said: "I am told that a young man, who has taken part in a cowardly beating of a complete stranger for no better purpose than to show off to his mates, on his own admission, is ... motivated by a strong sense of social obligation."
Keil had said he was showing off to his friends, leading the probation service to assess him for what they refered to as "Maori culture-related needs".
A probation report later claimed a "strong sense of social obligation" may have contributed to his offending.
Keil was jailed for six months on a charge of assault with intent to injure after the attack in which he punched another man twice to the head, before kicking and punching him while he lay on the ground.
Judge Adeane took issue with the probation service's suggestion that "social obligation" played a part in Keil's offending.
"It is, in my view, offensive to any acceptable notion of culture to suggest that because individual members value their association with each other, that when they commit crime together they are somehow expressing common cultural values.
"Nevertheless, that is an approach which is apparently being taken as a result of some policy decision within the Probation Service, where offending by Maori people comes under consideration," Judge Adeane said.
He questioned whether that kind of observation was appropriate.
"The Sicilian mafia operates under a code of family and silence every bit as strong as any notion of whanau, and to suggest that that creates some sort of legitimate sense of obligation to commit crime, in my view, is close to perverse."
Judge Adeane said the Keil case was the third he had encountered in the past three months where the defendant was described as acting out of a strong sense of social obligation.
Community Probation Service central regional manager Heather Mackie said there was a misunderstanding over what the purpose of "Maori culture-related needs" was.
"It is not used in order to provide a rationale or excuse for offending or to try and say that a connection or lack thereof to their culture directly relates to their offending. It is used to try and see if making connections to their culture can be part of the solution - not the problem."
The service hoped to discuss the matter with Judge Adeane.