Northlander's claim conviction based on unreliable evidence rejected

Peria man Maxwell Tobin has failed in his bid to challenge the legality of his conviction in the Kaikohe District Court. Photo/Peter de Graaf

The High Court has rejected a Northlander's challenge to the validity of his detention based on what he claimed was unreliable evidence.

Peria man Maxwell Charles Dallimo Tobin was sentenced in the Kaikohe District Court last year to four and a half years' jail after earlier being found guilty by a jury of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

He dragged his 67-year-old neighbour along a road by his beard and slammed him into a letterbox during a dispute over barking dogs and a Facebook post.

His neighbour suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Tobin applied in the High Court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing his conviction was based on unreliable evidence.

He also complained his appeal had been stymied by the police and judiciary and perceived he had "been forced into subjugation and contract with a Crown fiction" as retaliatory measures for his previous actions.

A writ requires a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person's release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention.

Justice Pheroze Jagose declined Tobin's application, saying it was for the chief executive of Corrections to establish whether his detention was lawful.