One man tried for stealing 10 cows

One man has had his charges dropped in the case of a father and son accused of stealing 10 cows from a Wanganui farmer in 2012.

Joseph Kain Hough was facing 14 charges of stealing cattle, but police prosecutor Sergeant Rachel Willemsen had the charges withdrawn in Whanganui District Court on Monday.

But the charges remained against his father, Ronald Ahitoro Poutini Hough. He denied stealing the cattle and his judge-alone trial began on Monday and finished Tuesday. Judge David Cameron reserved his decision until March.

The complainant, John Churton, runs a number of Maori-owned lease blocks of land along Otaranoho Rd - off Whanganui River Rd.

Hough's block of land backs on to Mr Churton's, and there have been "ongoing tensions" between the families, Ms Willemsen said.

On November 30, 2012, Mr Churton moved some cows down to a bottom paddock on his property, and it is alleged that between then and December 18, 10 of the cows were removed and taken up the road to Hough's property.

Police say the cows' National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) tags were removed and replaced with Mr Hough's Aorangi Trust ones.

Hough is not a trustee. He lives on the land and works as a co-ordinator, arranging over the phone for the cattle to be transported to sale yards.

The group of 10 cows were taken to the Stratford sale yard and Mr Churton discovered them there when a neighbour called and told him his cows could be there.

One of the allegedly stolen cows was a hand-reared pet cow named Chocolate, which Mr Churton was looking after for a friend.

Mr Churton was called as witness and described how he went to the sale yard looking for his cattle and spotted Chocolate in a pen. "I hopped down into the yards and called out to her," he said.

"She knows me well. She came up and I put my arms around her."

Defence counsel Debbie Goodlet questioned Mr Churton about a section of the property where there was only a boundary fence, and suggested the boundary fence would not keep cattle from going through and wandering up to the road.

Mr Churton maintained that the cows would not go up to that section as the hill was too steep.

Ms Goodlet also suggested there was a gap in the fencing.

The owner of Chocolate, PJ Faumai, described how Mr Churton had given him the cow and how she was a pet with a love for bread.

"If you wanted her to come over, all you had to do was shake a bread bag and she would come running," she said.

In a video interview, when asked about Chocolate, Hough described her as "wild" and "skitterish", despite telling the court he wouldn't have any contact with the cattle they were selling.

"I don't actually view any stock," he said while giving evidence. "Probably at a distance. I never saw them physically."

Ms Willemsen noted that TB testing records produced to the court showed Hough had 21 cattle tested on February 2012, and 41 in February 2013, yet he had sold 112 cattle between March and November 2012.

Ms Goodlet argued there was no evidence given on whether the TB tests were full herd tests.

Hough maintained that "maybe some" of the 10 allegedly stolen were his own cows. "I don't know," he said.

Ms Willemsen said Mr Churton had knowledge of each cow.

"He can go through every single one of those cows and can tell us in quite elaborate detail why he knows those cows are his."

The cows have since been returned.

The judge will give his decision on March 25.