Tauranga's newest Community Magistrate sworn in

Tauranga's Shaun Cole is the first of five new community magistrates to be sworn in this month.

A swearing-in ceremony was held for Cole at Tauranga District Court yesterday , while the others will be sworn in at Auckland District Court on October 25 and Christchurch District Court on October 26.

Cole will sit in Tauranga, while Terence Bourke will sit in Hamilton, Lucy Daniels Whineray in Auckland, and Simon Heale and Sally O'Brien will both sit in Christchurch.

Cole was welcomed into the district court with a powhiri. "It is a real pleasure to be part of this community," she said.

Inside the courtroom, Judge Louis Bidois welcomed Cole and her family to Mount Maunganui and congratulated her on her new appointment as Tauranga's newest community magistrate.

"She is a person who is held in high regard by the judiciary because she has been selected to this important position that involves hard work," he said.

Judges, lawyers, workers of the court and community magistrates filled the courtroom for the special ceremony.

Bidois wished Cole good luck in her new role and welcomed her into her new work family of community magistrates. "They are a strong bunch, a close bunch, good luck," he said.

Associate Justice and Courts Minister Aupito William Sio said the appointment of community magistrates increases the judicial resource available to the courts.

"As magistrates tackle offending at the lower end of the spectrum, district court judges become free to provide their expertise on more serious and complicated cases," he said.

What is a community magistrate?
- Judicial officers who deal with a wide-ranging body of work
- Can impose sentences on persons who have been found guilty or have plead guilty to certain minor imprisonable offences
- Can conduct defended hearings for a range of non-imprisonable offences
Source: New Zealand Law Society