Pair in court over Wanaka assault

Photo / File

Two men charged with seriously assaulting Wanaka man Kahu Vincent on May 9 have continued name suppression at least for now.

The pair, aged 34 and 39, appeared in the Invercargill District Court today via audio-visual link from Invercargill Prison.

Both face a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm and one is also charged with wilfully attempt to prevent the course of justice by threatening to kill a third man if he spoke to the police.

One of the men sought bail, which was declined by Judge Michael Turner.
However, he said the man was still able to apply for electronically-monitored bail, which might or might not be granted.

Through their counsels, Hugo Young and Fiona Guy Kidd, both men sought continued suppression of their names.

Judge Turner decided their names should be made public but Mr Young and Ms Guy Kidd asked for continued suppression until 10am tomorrow so they could seek instructions about whether to appeal the decision, and Judge Turner agreed to that.

He remanded the men in custody to appear in the Queenstown District Court on June 22.

All details of the hour-long discussion at today's court hearing about bail and name suppression were suppressed, but Judge Turner said the outcome of the hearing could be published.

Mr Vincent, 27, suffered serious head injuries at the Wanaka Night'n'Day store at 3am on Saturday, May 9.

About a dozen family and friends were at today's court hearing.

Afterwards, Joram Makuru, whose sister Jade is Mr Vincent's partner, said Mr Vincent was still in Dunedin Hospital in a coma.

CT scans of his brain late last week had been "positive" and doctors hoped to bring him out of the coma in the next few days, he said.