An Auckland lawyer has questioned whether the Crown abused the court process by re-laying a sex charge after agreeing to withdraw it during a plea bargain.
Auckland truck driver Alan Mark Scadden was to be sentenced in the Manukau District Court yesterday on a charge of kidnapping a 14-year-old Nelson girl
he met through the internet.
An earlier charge of having sex with the girl was withdrawn in October after Scadden pleaded guilty to the kidnapping charge.
But in court yesterday Crown prosecutor Howard Lawrie said the Crown wanted to re-lay the sex charge because of the mitigating factors involved in the sentencing.
Scadden would have the right to vacate his guilty plea.
Scadden's lawyer, Colin Amery, then asked the court if the decision was an abuse of process.
Mr Amery told Judge Chris Field that the earlier plea bargain had been accepted in good faith and the defendant was prepared to be sentenced on the kidnapping charge.
Technically the Crown had the right to lay the charge again after withdrawing it. But he asked if it was not an abuse of good faith.
Judge Field remanded Scadden on bail for 10 days without taking a plea on the new sex charge.
Scadden had admitted developing a relationship with the girl as they corresponded in an internet chatroom.
The Nelson District Court was told earlier that the girl told Scadden she was being abused by her mother and her mother's partner and asked Scadden to take her away with him. The pair spent the night together after Scadden arrived in Nelson.
He booked a return ticket for himself and a one-way ticket for the girl under a false name.
After he and the girl checked in for their flight to Auckland, police arrived and arrested him.
- NZPA
