'Angry man' charged with breaching quake cordon

A Christchurch man who breached the cordon around the Christchurch CBD says he was trying to rescue his possessions. Photo / Doug Sherring

A Christchurch man is determined to make an issue of his arrest for breaching the earthquake cordon to rescue possessions from his house as it was being demolished.

A digger was already at work when David Jerrold Theobald went into his property to get his gear, police say.

The 43-year-old has been charged with breaching the emergency cordon and he remained in custody after a second Christchurch District Court appearance inside Christchurch Men's Prison today.

The penalty for the offence is relatively light, but Theobald is staying locked up because he is so angry and upset.

A report has already been done for the court by the Forensic Psychiatric Unit and it shows that Theobald is not unwell with any mental health disorder.

He made a dramatic appearance before Judge Christopher Somerville today to enter a not guilty plea to the charge.

He had already spoken to duty solicitor Phillip Allan but Mr Allan told the court that Theobald had ended the interview early because he did not want to talk to the lawyer any more.

Mr Allan suggested a further remand for a week for Theobald so that an application could be made for his release on bail.

Judge Somerville said he favoured a further remand in custody because Theobald remained so angry, and had made threats.

The judge spoke to Theobald very carefully, calling him by his first name, but the response was an immediate outburst.

Theobald said he had "crossed the line to get my stuff when the building was being demolished".

"I'm very angry, and I'll be angry for the rest of my life. I have no past and no future now."

When the judge spoke about what an appropriate penalty would be for a cordon-breach charge, Theobald replied: "I have already had the appropriate penalty over the last fortnight."

He then walked in to a corner of the courtroom where he faced into the wall but called out that he wanted to plead not guilty and call evidence.

Prison officers told him to stop swearing.

He was remanded in custody for another court appearance on May 20.

Few details are available about what happened because it is heading for a defended hearing, but it is understood a demolition worker injured his foot on a spike during the incident, and Theobald was taken out of the building in the bucket of a digger.

- NZPA