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She has a clean record, studies neurology, and had just finished a summer holiday with her family in Auckland. But when Liesl van Wyk boarded her plane to Dunedin, she triggered a set of events that left her facing charges in the Auckland High Court and taxpayers with
a $50,000 bill.
After a one-day trial last week, the jury took less than nine minutes to acquit the university student of trying to board the plane with two dangerous knives.
Van Wyk, 24, was found not guilty on two counts of attempting to take a weapon on to an aircraft, after an Auckland Airport x-ray machine detected a "butterfly" and flick knife in her carry-on bag in February. The 12-man jury accepted there was nothing "sinister or untoward" about the North Shore woman's actions.
Bound for her student flat after a summer holiday with family in Auckland, van Wyk forgot the knives were packed among her possessions.
"I was freaking out but so relieved about the verdict. Everyone was telling me how ridiculous it was, even a couple of the jurors afterwards," van Wyk said. "It was a stupid mistake but I could have gone to jail."
Van Wyk admits the two knives, banned in New Zealand, would have raised the eyebrows of Aviation Security guards. But she says the weapons were a souvenir from an earlier trip to Thailand, which managed to slip through Customs in her check-in luggage.
"I've always fancied knives, I even had a collection when I was a kid in South Africa. When the guard stopped me I thought, 'Doh', and they would be confiscated. But I was arrested."
Under the Aviation Crimes Act 1972, any weapons charges must be heard before a High Court jury, rather than a District Court judge.
The day-long trial was the fourth aircraft weapons case in the Auckland High Court this year.
Van Wyk's lawyer Desmond O'Connor told her the case would have cost the taxpayer $50,000 in Crown Law and court costs.
Since the September 11, 2001, aircraft hijackings there has been heightened security at airports, a fact mentioned in the police summary of facts.
Gary Gotlieb, vice-president of the Auckland District Law Society, said Crown Law was bound by legislation which was unlikely to be changed, as there were so few cases like van Wyk.
Chris Tosswill, chief operating officer for Aviation Security, said the police were called because the weapons were illegal.
Crown Solicitor Simon Moore was unavailable for comment.
