A Queenstown man who blamed voice-activated computer program Siri for dozens of cellphone calls to his estranged wife has been found guilty of harassment.
Carl Ngawhika, cultural performer, was told he deliberately called the victim, Elisa Zagaglia, 32 times between December 2 and December 19 of 2015.
Appearing in the Queenstown District today, the defendant was told by Judge Mark Callaghan his Siri explanation was "not credible''.
The same conclusion was reached about his second explanation: that calls to his cellphone were inadvertently forwarded to the victim's cellphone by an automatic call-forwarding function.
Judge Callaghan convicted Ngawhika and ordered him to pay the victim $750 for emotional harm and witness airfare expenses of $1001.89.
