A person, who has suppression of their name and relationship to Robertson, phoned noise control, sparking him to threaten the caller that he would shoot them and burn their house down.
Fearing for their safety, they called police. Three police officers arrived and were told they’d be shot if they didn’t leave Robertson’s property.
On January 16 of the following year, he texted threats to Newstalk ZB addressed to Hosking.
“The language that you used in those text messages …. is both crass and disgraceful,” Judge Maxwell said.
“It included a suggestion that there might be a bomb in the next courier parcel.”
His lawyer sought a sentence of intensive supervision and permanent name suppression. Police sought home detention and $500 reparation to each police officer threatened. They were neutral on suppression.
A police prosecutor said the neighbour who was threatened was left terrified for herself and her family.
Psychological reports prepared for the court said the man excelled in both academics and sports as a young man.
He was first an electrical engineer, then an antiques dealer.
But his antiques business suffered with the advent of online auctions, the court heard.
He began self-medicating with alcohol and drugs and was eventually diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. He has prior convictions for what the Judge described as anti-social behaviour.
Judge Maxwell adopted a starting point of 18 months in prison, applying a 10 per cent discount for the mental health issues and a 25 per cent discount for his early guilty pleas.
The end sentence of 11 months in prison was within range for a community-based sentence.
Judge Maxwell sentenced him to five months home detention and 100 hours community work, to be served concurrently, for the threats against each of the three police officers.
The threats against Hosking and the other people also received five months home detention.
Judge Maxwell explained she added community work for the threats against the officers because “if you threaten a police officer you need to give back to the community”.
The Judge said the test for permanent name suppression - extreme hardship - was not met.
Also at issue was the fact he had already been named in the media.
“The reality is that you have relapsed on a relatively regular basis since your diagnosis of Bipolar disorder in 2014, when the prospect of media reporting was not a trigger,” Judge Maxwell said in declining the application for permanent name suppression.
However, the Judge did not grant an application from the Herald to photograph Robertson in court or the police’s application for emotional harm payments to the officers.
Under his bail conditions, the man was instructed not to have any contact with Hosking, including via social media, and not to visit the Newstalk ZB office in Auckland.
His home detention carries similar orders not to communicate with his victims or Newstalk ZB.
Threatening to kill or do grievous bodily harm carries a maximum possible term of seven years in prison under the Crimes Act.
It’s not the first time Hosking has been subject to violent threats.
Sinapati Tuugasala, 60, was charged with threatening to kill Hosking but was discharged without conviction in March last year.
Tuugasala made a call to Newstalk ZB after he “took umbrage” at Hosking’s comments to the Prime Minister during a “robust” interview.
Hosking had made the suggestion to Jacinda Ardern that she improve her Covid-19 response because: “you got caught with your pants down”, and Tuugasala misinterpreted the idiom because English is his second language.
Hosking hosts the Mike Hosking Breakfast show on weekday mornings from 6-9am.
Newstalk ZB is owned by NZME, which also publishes the Herald.
A spokesperson for NZME said earlier the company “took the safety of our people very seriously”.
