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Focus on
Police Competence |
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Three teenage girls who
spent eight months in prison for what a judge described as a
"sadistic" slashing of a schoolgirl have had their convictions
overturned in the Court of Appeal. Krishla Fuataha, 16,
Lucy Akatere, 17, and Tania Vini, 17, fought back tears as they left the
court in Auckland this morning, after Justices Robertson, Gault and Salmon
quashed the conviction and told the three they had the court's sympathy for
the injustice which had wrongly sent them to prison. The three were
convicted of aggravated robbery in August last year after an attack on a 16-year-old
in an Auckland park in August 1999. Krishla was sentenced to two years' jail.
The other two received 18 months. Arm in arm with their
lawyer Gary Gotlieb as they left court, the trio said it was a
"sensational feeling" to be free. They appealed the
conviction after a private investigator produced new evidence showing they
were not in the Three Kings park when the girl was attacked. The victim was thumped
and kicked and had her head banged against a tree stump. She was then dragged to
a nearby toilet block, where she was robbed of $10. Each time the girl said
she had no more money to give, she was sliced with a pair of scissors. At sentencing last
month, Justice Randerson said, despite the defendants' young age, he did not
consider a non-custodial sentence appropriate because of factors including
the deliberate cutting of the victim, which he said was "quite
sadistic." He noted the trio
continued to deny their offending. Krishla was said to
have wielded the weapon. At sentencing, her conduct was described by
prosecutor Kieran Raftery as the most "cold, callous and chilling." |
