PALMERSTON NORTH - A man accused of chaining his wayward 14-year-old stepdaughter to him was acquitted in the High Court at Palmerston North yesterday.
The jury took just over 90 minutes to find the 47-year-old man not guilty of kidnapping and cruelty to a child.
The jurors had been told that the girl had embarked on a life of truancy, running away from home, using marijuana, promiscuous sex and driving her mother to distraction.
After police brought the girl home in the early hours of May 14, she unleashed a furious and foul-mouthed tirade at her mother, who asked her partner to help her out, the court heard.
He produced a 6m chain and forcibly fastened one end around the girl's waist and the other around his own.
He told the girl the chain was a lesson in mutual reliance and mutual responsibility, and that help was at the end of it.
The man was charged when police called at the house 12 hours later and found the pair chained together.
The man's counsel, Mike Behrens, QC, offered a defence of "tough love" without calling evidence.
"The important thing about that chain is this: she was not chained to a wall ... she was chained to another human being. And that human being was prepared to go with her," Mr Behrens said.
Summing up, Justice Wild asked the jurors to assess the reasonableness of what took place in the context of the domestic discipline defence.
- NZPA
Man who chained stepdaughter goes free
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