Abel Wira has been on trial at the High Court at Whangārei for the manslaughter of Neville Thomson (inset) in August 2022.
A jury has found a man guilty of manslaughter after his dogs fatally mauled his friend to death – the first conviction of its kind in New Zealand.
Over the past week, the jury has had the task of deciding whether Abel Wira, 61, was guilty of either being the owner of a dog that caused injury or death or the higher charge, manslaughter.
The maximum penalty for manslaughter is life imprisonment, while for the lesser charge, it is three years in jail or a $20,000 fine.
Today, Wira stood emotionless in the dock as the jury delivered a unanimous guilty verdict of manslaughter for the death of Panguru man, Neville Thomson.
The High Court at Whangārei heard Wira had been living in a caravan on Thomson’s Panguru property with 21 of his dogs for at least six weeks in 2022.
While most were puppies, at least five adult dogs were known to be aggressive, having previously lunged at visitors, attacked livestock, and turned on Wira himself, forcing him to flee into the ocean to escape.
On August 4, Wira left the property to retrieve a car he had crashed days earlier and later travelled to Broadwood to collect supplies, including dog food.
Thomson was home alone and on the phone to his partner Shirley Orchard when the pack of dogs, which were in the caravan and had not been fed for two days, got out and mauled him to death.
The caravan door had no lock and was propped closed by a log of wood and a shoelace tied between two holes.
Police conducted a welfare check more than three hours later and discovered Thomson had died from blood loss after multiple dog bites.
Before they retired, Justice Andrew Becroft advised jurors to rely on the evidence when considering their verdict.
“It is not what the lawyers say, it is not what I say, you must include the whole of the evidence,” he said.
Justice Becroft said jurors must leave their feelings towards dogs and Thomson out of their decision-making and remain focused.
“You may feel prejudice to Mr Wira and the way he looked after his dogs. You may feel sympathy for Mr Thomson and the way he died.
“Your job is to focus on the evidence and whether the Crown has proved each element of the charge beyond reasonable doubt.
“Frankly, those feelings are irrelevant. In approaching your job you must be clinical, logical, focused and objective.”
No one disputed Thomson’s death was caused by the dog attack.
The trial was instead focused on Wira’s responsibility – specifically, his handling of his dogs that were known to be aggressive.
In closing submissions, Crown lawyer Richard Annandale said Wira’s failure was a gross departure from what was expected of a dog owner.
“That failure was a gross departure from what was reasonable and as a result Mr Thomson died.”
Defence lawyer Arthur Fairley submitted a scenario that if Thomson had opened the caravan door, the Crown did not have a case.
Fairley said there had been no issues with the caravan until August 4 and the Crown had relied on the inference of what Orchard heard over the phone while she was talking to him.
“There’s no evidence these dogs have burst through the door before,” Fairley said.
The jury retired to consider their decision at around 3pm on Monday and went home at around 5pm.
They returned to continue deliberations this morning and came back with the guilty verdict at around 1.30pm.
Justice Becroft thanked the jury in what he said was a particularly difficult and graphic case.
“Our system depends on people like you in the community who give up their time,” Justice Becroft said.
“We can only express our thanks for your hard work.”
Danica Soich, one of two Crown prosecutors on the case, told NZME after the verdict it was the first time someone had been found guilty of manslaughter in New Zealand after a fatal dog attack.
In 2023, Max Aaron Mitchell-Clifford was sentenced to 120 hours of community work and nine months’ supervision after pleading guilty to a charge of owning a dog that caused serious injury.
The victim, a 1-day-old boy, was killed in 2020 when the Hamilton man’s rottweiler dragged him out of a bassinet and partially buried him in the backyard.
In 2014, a man was sentenced to one year of home detention and ordered to pay $25,000 in reparation after two of his rottweilers mauled a 31-year-old woman to death the previous year.
The man pleaded guilty to two charges of owning a dog that caused serious injury.
Wira was remanded in custody and will be sentenced in October.
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.