Two students who received jail sentences for assaulting a Wanganui Collegiate School boy have successfully appealed the charges and had their convictions quashed.
Hautahi Rawiri Kingi, a 19-year old student at Victoria University, was charged with assault with intent to injure, after confronting his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend and then Wanganui Collegiate School student, in early July 2006.
He and a co-accused, Guy Francis McEwen, who prevented anyone from intervening in the assault, pleaded guilty to the charge and were sentenced in the Wanganui District Court to five months, and four months in jail respectively by Judge John Clapham in May 2007.
In an appeal in the High Court at Wanganui in September 2007, Kingi and McEwen were discharged without conviction by Judge Simon France, who said he didn't consider a custodial sentence was appropriate or required in the circumstances.
Judge France said the charge was at the lower end of the scale, and the injuries to the victim minor. Kingi acted totally out of character, which was in some way explained by his psychological report, which detailed how he had been deeply affected by the breakup with his girlfriend, was having trouble with the transition to university life, and had just received some bad family news.