Woman convicted over supermarket scuffle fails to show for own appeal

Scenes from a video of an assault which went viral. File Photo / Supplied

A High Court judge has slammed the actions of a Rotorua woman involved in a scuffle with Countdown staff for failing to turn up for her own appeal.

Cherylly Juanita Campbell, aka Tapsell, 30, was sentenced in the Rotorua District Court in June to 10 months' jail after being found guilty of assaulting Countdown staff Eric Alexander and Jimmy Thekkakara with a handbag.

The scuffle with staff at the Fenton St Countdown in January was caught on video which went viral on YouTube and Facebook.

The jail term was also for other charges including driving while disqualified, refusing to give a blood specimen, assaulting a police officer, obstructing police, refusing to accompany a police officer, and failing to give her details to the police - an incident which occurred while she was on bail for the Countdown assaults.

During sentencing, Judge Graham Hubble told Campbell the sentence was effectively time served as she had been in custody for five months.

The 10-month jail term was later reduced to three months' jail.

Campbell had lodged an appeal against the convictions in relation to the Countdown incident and the appeal hearing was set down to be heard in the High Court at Rotorua this afternoon. Rotorua Crown prosecutor Simon Simmers appeared for the Crown.

Justice Peter Woodhouse delayed proceedings for a short time to see if Campbell would show. However, when Campbell did not appear he said the appeal had been abandoned and dismissed it.

Justice Woodhouse said his time, the Crown's time and that of the court had been wasted which was unsatisfactory. Campbell had also not filed any submissions.

The judge said he could be wrong but the impression he had from what he had seen was that Campbell had lodged the appeal without any intention of pursuing it.

"Public resources should not be wasted in this way,'' Justice Woodhouse said.

Campbell's mother, Eve Campbell, 50, who was sentenced to 75 hours' community work after being found guilty of assault with a shopping bag, had planned to appeal her conviction but later abandoned her appeal.