Man with 'filthy mouth' unable to avoid community work

File photo / NZ Herald

A rural man with a "mouth like an open sewer" who terrorised his neighbours has made an unsuccessful bid to avoid doing community work because it was too onerous.

In February, a New Plymouth jury found Peter John Kennedy guilty of threatening grievous bodily harm to Elizabeth Shewan.

Kennedy made a throat-slitting gesture at Ms Shewan, part of an ongoing campaign against his neighbours on the remote Forgotten World Highway at Whangamomona.

In appealing against the sentence, lawyer Peter Brosnahan argued Kennedy's east Taranaki home, 105 minutes' drive from Stratford, made the terms of community work onerous and unusual.

Instead Mr Brosnahan asked for Kennedy to pay emotional harm reparation to Ms Shewan.

But the Court of Appeal has now ruled the 180-hour community-work sentence should stay.

Mr Brosnahan argued the sentencing judge ought to have based the punishment on "knowledge, rather than irritation".

Mr Brosnahan said there was no remand for a probation report or consideration of restorative justice and no consideration was given to a fine or reparation.

"You have heard what I have to say, Kennedy. Your mouth is filthy. It is like an open sewer. For you to talk to a woman like that is nothing short of disgraceful," the sentencing judge said.

"I have indicated to you my feelings. This was a campaign that you waged against those people, deliberately engineered I suspect to make their stay as unpleasant as possible. You were successful."

During the appeal hearing the court also heard Ms Shewan and her partner Wayne McIvor had suffered a further setback since moving when their new South Island property burnt down.

The Court of Appeal judgment says Mr Brosnahan had not seen a full transcript of the discussion at Kennedy's sentencing, which happened immediately after the verdict.

The transcript revealed the judge was told by Kennedy's trial lawyer community work would have an impact on the farm. The lawyer also suggested a monetary penalty and said no probation report was necessary.

When considering this the Court of Appeal found none of Mr Brosnahan's argument to be substantiated.

"As the sentence of community work was clearly within the available range for Mr Kennedy's offending, it cannot be described as manifestly excessive," the judgement says.

At his trial, Kennedy was found not guilty of assaulting Mr McIvor.