KEY POINTS:
A juror serving on a trial of skinheads accused of kidnapping and beating a Canadian tourist last year received a threatening note related to the case, the court heard yesterday.
Police are investigating the attempt to intimidate the Wellington juror, who was discharged from the case after reporting he had found the note left outside his house yesterday morning.
The note said "not guilty" and was marked with a swastika.
The remaining 11 members of the jury, who were not told of the note until after the verdicts, found Benjamin Peter McPadden, 19, Jaydon Russell Borland, 31, and Jason George Gregory, 20, guilty of kidnapping 26-year-old Jeremie Kawerninski in Wellington in April last year.
Borland was also found guilty of beating and robbing Kawerninski while Gregory was also found guilty of robbing him.
At the end of a trial that started on July 2, the jury returned to the High Court in Wellington after 10pm, having been released at midday to consider their verdicts.
Police said the intimidation would be thoroughly investigated.
"Any attempt to influence the justice process including intimidation of jurors to force them to change their verdict is an attack on the justice system," Detective Inspector Shane Cotter of Wellington police said.
"We regard the intimidation as a very serious offence."
Because an investigation was underway, police would not comment further.
All three men had pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, causing grievous bodily harm, and robbing Mr Kawerninski of his wallet, clothing, watch and rings.
Mr Kawerninski spent eight days in Lower Hutt Hospital recovering from his injuries.
A fourth man, Mark Alexander Gage, 31, was discharged from the case on Wednesday because of a lack of evidence.
The Crown said on his first day in Wellington Mr Kawerninski had hooked up with the men in the city and after drinking with them was driven back to McPadden's house in Naenae to drink bourbon.
After drinking too much, Mr Kawerninski fell asleep in a bedroom and was later savagely attacked and robbed before being put in a car and dumped in a cul-de-sac.
In court, he said he had known Borland was a skinhead, but did not judge people by their appearance.
Yesterday, Justice Jillian Mallon granted McPadden bail, but with strict curfew conditions.
Gregory and Borland were remanded in custody and all three are due to reappear in the High Court at Wellington for a pre-sentence report on August 10.
Justice Mallon initially suppressed all details about the note, but lifted the order when the case finished.
The police officer in charge of the case, Detective Ben Quinn, told The Dominion Post attempts at juror intimidation were unusual in New Zealand.
Someone had obviously discovered where the juror lived.
An investigation into who had left the note had been launched, he said.
- NZPA
