Basketball: Trial for player

A former Otago basketballer is to stand trial for allegedly injuring an opposing player who suffered brain injuries during a game in Dunedin in May.

At a depositions hearing in Dunedin District Court yesterday, David Trevor Jarvis, 43, a Dunedin businessman and former Otago Nuggets assistant coach, was committed for trial and remanded for a pre-trial call-over on December 17.

Jarvis pleaded not guilty to injuring Tony Graeme Ashton, a 20-year-old university student, on May 8 under circumstances that, if death had been caused, he would have been guilty of manslaughter.

Prosecutor Tim Hambleton said Mr Ashton was in a coma for two weeks and was likely to be severely disabled and reliant on others for care.