A judge was heckled as he handed a police inspector who assaulted two teenagers a discharge without conviction today.
The unknown man shouted from the public gallery that the decision was an "absolute scandal'' as Manurewa area commander Richard Wilkie, 51, was told of his sentence at Auckland District Court this morning.
He pleaded guilty in July to two charges of assault during an off-duty incident, after discovering his 14-year-old daughter drinking with other teenagers in Bucklands Beach, Auckland in the early hours.
The inspector was among parents called to take their children home, arriving with his wife Ann, a Counties Manukau detective, "lightly dressed'' and without footwear after being woken up by police last April.
The teens were described in court as sitting calmly on a grass verge "compliant and not causing any offence'' when Mr Wilkie arrived.