By JAMES GARDINER
The two men accused of a kidnap conspiracy in which Wellington businessman Bill Trotter was to be held in an underground box were last night found guilty.
Upper Hutt lawyer John Arthur Burrett, 53, and his nephew, Matthew Norman Payne, 22, had claimed the kidnap plot was a game of role play that they never intended to go through with.
Both were also found guilty of illegal possession of a firearm and face jail terms of up to 14 years and possible deportation to England.
The verdicts took the jury nine hours to reach after a seven-week trial.
Justice Grant Hammond remanded the pair in custody for sentence next Wednesday and told the court that because police had been criticised during the trial he wanted to commend them for the way the investigation was conducted.
The judge said he had no doubt that if the police had not stopped the men as they entered the Botanic Gardens armed with a shotgun last July 22 they would have carried out their kidnap plot. Burrett and Payne looked shocked at the verdicts, both closing their eyes.
Outside the court Burrett's wife Jennifer said the verdicts were "perverse" and would be appealed.
In his summing up Justice Hammond said it was a single-issue case in which the jury had to decide whether they believed Burrett and Payne.
Burrett had made much of his extraordinarily adventurous life, including his time in the British Army, flying planes and sailing yachts, but the jury were "a bunch of Kiwis" who could make their own assessment of that, the judge said.
"Mr Burrett painted a picture of an experienced and even dashing regular Army officer engaged in all sorts of exploits.
"The reality you may think was somewhat more modest: A junior officer primarily engaged in munition storage who, like everyone in the Army, carried a gun when called upon. In short, is Mr Burrett a blowhard - and conveniently so for the purposes of this case?"
Another question the jury needed to focus on: "If this was a game, how did it come about, where were it's bounds and where was it going?"
Justice Hammond pointed out that Burrett, defending himself, had taken up a considerable portion of the seven-week trial and that gave the jury an extended opportunity to evaluate his character.
The Crown's case was that "these are clever and devious men who got caught with their pants down" and the jury had to decide if that was so and whether the eccentricities Burrett displayed in the courtroom during the trial were part of an ongoing attempt to manipulate the case.
Payne's lawyer, Noel Sainsbury, said: "The twisted judgment that allowed this game to evolve should expose both accused to public ridicule and contempt ... but it is not yet a crime to show such poor judgment."
He pointed to the plywood box, which sat at the front of the courtroom for the whole seven weeks, and warned the jurors not to allow it to colour their thinking.
The pair will be sentenced next Wednesday.
Pair found guilty of underground-box kidnapping conspiracy
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