Bottle assault after death taunt

A man whose father was found murdered in a driveway has been convicted of throwing a bottle at people who taunted him over the death.

Conan Michael Mulholland, 26, was convicted in Masterton District Court this week of throwing the bottle at a car carrying five people, hitting one on the head.

He pleaded guilty to assault with a blunt instrument after his lawyer, Ian Hard, asked the judge to consider it as self defence.

Mulholland's father, Michael Mulholland, 52, was found dead in the driveway of Farmer Cres, a Mongrel Mob gang area in Taita, on September 20, three days before the incident.

Prosecutor Sergeant Garry Wilson said Mulholland and another person had been standing near the Firestone carpark in north Chapel St, Masterton, on September 23.

A car drove past and the occupants had called out to antagonise Mulholland, then returned to do so again.

Mulholland threw the bottle, striking a female back-seat passenger on the side of the head.

The bottle was thrown with such force that it then glanced off and hit the passenger window on the far side of the car, breaking the glass.

The woman suffered an injury to her head.

Mr Hard said there had also been four men in the vehicle, and Mulholland had not been aiming at the woman who was hit but at another occupant.

Those in the vehicle had called out "quite insidious" taunts and threats related to Mulholland and his father, he said.

They knew his father had been murdered and Mr Hard said Mulholland "was worried they were all going to get out of the car and lay into him".

He said it was "a bit of a shame he has got such a good throwing arm".

Judge Tom Broadmore said self-defence was not available as a defence in the circumstances.

He also cited the "misdirected arrow principle", which states that if a flying object hits a person other than the one aimed at, the thrower is just as guilty as if he had hit his target.

Mulholland was sentenced to 100 hours' community work.