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A police officer has been convicted after he crashed into a lamp post, knocking it down and seriously injuring an Auckland schoolboy last August.
Constable Aaron Holmes had been chasing a car that had sped from a police checkpoint when he hit the pole on Richardson Road, Mt Albert, after first crashing into a vehicle waiting at a pedestrian crossing.
The lamp post struck Farhat Buksh, 14, who had been using the crossing, leaving him with brain injuries.
Judge Ian McHardy at Auckland District Court this morning found Constable Holmes guilty of aggravated careless use of a motor vehicle causing injury.
Holmes will reappear for sentencing on August 4.
Farhat's grandmother today said she was relieved Holmes had been convicted.
Nisha Ali said Farhat had lost all confidence in his speech and found it difficult to remember things.
But she said his family did not want Holmes to be sentenced to prison.
"I do feel sorry for him, it's a mistake that he has made," she said.
- NEWSTALK ZB with NZHERALD STAFF
