KEY POINTS:
One man has been found guilty and another cleared over their involvement in the ransom of a one-tonne $250,000 sculpture.
Brenden John Marshall, 39, and Benjamin Horace Way, 23, were jointly accused of receiving the three metre-by-three metre sculpture, stolen from outside a restaurant in Waikanae, north of Wellington.
Marshall was also accused of blackmailing the sculpture's owners, threatening to cut up the artwork and sell it to a scrapmetal dealer if they didn't pay a ransom.
At the High Court in Wellington yesterday, a jury found Marshall guilty of both charges he faced.
Way was found not guilty of receiving, and a charge of helping Marshall evade police was withdrawn.
The bronze sculpture, Long Horizon, moulded and cast by Palmerston North artist Paul Dibble, was stolen from outside the cafe Swell at Waikanae Beach on the Kapiti Coast on October 6, 2005.
During the trial, Crown prosecutor Kenneth Stone said Marshall made a video of the sculpture, delivering it to the owners via the editor of the Kapiti Observer newspaper, Diane Joyce.
One of the sculpture's owners, Maggie Mouat, watched the film and agreed to pay $6000 to get it back.
Later, Marshall called her to increase the ransom by $4000 and some days later an exchange meeting took place.
Way was arrested shortly after but Marshall disappeared and did not reappear until seven months later when he handed himself in to police in Otaki.
He was granted bail and will be sentenced on July 4.
Justice Simon France said it was an unusual case and he was "not absolutely certain" that Marshall would be sentenced to jail, so it was appropriate to grant bail in the meantime.
A prison sentence was a possibility, however.
- NZPA
