A judge this morning took the unusual move of presiding over a case in a hospital ward.
Court staff, solicitors, and media representatives crammed into the single-bed Ward 19 room for the special Christchurch District Court hearing into the case of a 48-year-old man who appeared in his hospital bed.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, stayed lying down in his bed dressed in a white medical robe for the duration of the hearing.
He has been charged with assaulting a female at an address in Dannevirke between June 2004 and February 2005.
The alleged victim of the assault sat at the man's bedside during the 10-minute hearing.
