'Home invaders' locked in, shot

[Guest Urbanhog]

Got this thru a email from my mates liv'in in NZ:

 

The Press - Christchurch, New Zealand

Edition 2TUE 10 DEC 2002, Page 005

 

'Home invaders' locked in, shot

 

Two home invaders who allegedly tried to rob a dope grower of his cannabis were locked in his growing room and one was blasted with a shotgun, the Christchurch District Court has been told.

 

Paul Desmond McKenzie, 24, and Michael Steven O'Connor, 21, each deny a count of aggravated robbery.

 

Prosecutor Anne Toohey told the court yesterday that the pair and another person had gone to the Marshland Road address of a man whom McKenzie knew.

 

When the man answered the door he was immediately attacked, and was punched in the head several times by McKenzie. A bedroom had been made into a growing room at the house, where O'Connor and an associate started to pack the cannabis they found there.

 

McKenzie stood in the doorway scuffling with the man, then went into the room to help.

 

The complainant then locked the trio in the room. When they began to break out the man walked around the side of the house with a firearm, which was poked inside a window. When it was grabbed from the inside, McKenzie was shot in an arm.

 

All three then fled from the address.

 

The Crown contended that both the accused went to the address with the aim of robbing the victim of cannabis, Ms Toohey said.

 

The complainant said in evidence that he had realised they were "going to take everything" after the initial beating he received.

 

He had been dragged towards his growing room, where the windows were boarded up, and they began cutting up cannabis plants and bagging them.

 

At one point McKenzie pulled out a cut-throat razor and held it up to his face and throat.

 

He realised the door had a dead- bolt, and, after a scuffle, he was able to lock the door on the three, the witness said.

 

He had then gone into another room where his shotgun was concealed, and loaded it.

 

He had gone around the side of the house and stuck the gun through the open window, and it had gone off after he felt movement from the inside.

 

He told the invaders to leave, and after they had gone, went back inside and started cleaning up.

 

His cellphone and a replica firearm were missing, as was most of his cannabis, the witness said.

He had later faced charges relating to the incident and was dealt with by the court.

 

Questioned by defence counsel David Bunce, the witness agreed he had been a cannabis dealer at the time.

 

He said he had later gone to some lengths trying to conceal what had happened at the address.

 

He also admitted lying in his original statement to police about some aspects of what occurred.

 

The case, before Judge Murray Abbott and a jury, is expected to take about three days.

 

 

 

Source: The Press - Christchurch, New Zealand

[Tom]

Questioned by defence counsel David Bunce, the witness agreed he had been a cannabis dealer at the time.

 

A bit of a mistake to deal from the same address as the grow, most of his customers would recognise the smell of a grow of that size, caught out by his own greed.