Murchison farmer Luke King has appealed to the High Court, saying his conviction is not warranted as he has not committed a crime. Photo / Supplied
Murchison farmer Luke King has appealed to the High Court, saying his conviction is not warranted as he has not committed a crime. Photo / Supplied
A farmer has made a lone stand against a criminal conviction after one of his horses ended up loose on the highway, and was struck and killed by a passing courier driver.
Luke King, who owns a farm near the West Coast junction town of Murchison, was convicted and discharged in August this year for causing a criminal nuisance for failing to properly fence a property, following the accident in July 2020.
Today he has appealed against that conviction in the High Court at Nelson, saying the police, legal and justice systems have been against him on all fronts.
Murchison farmer Luke King is appealing against his conviction following an incident in which a horse from his farm escaped onto the road and was killed by a courier driver. Photo / Tracy Neal
It was the depths of winter and the driver Joseph Martin was doing the late-night newspaper and mail run between Christchurch and Nelson.
He’d left Christchurch at 10.30pm and at about 3am on July 13, 2020, he was between Murchison and Springs Junction, travelling at close to 100km/h when he noticed a shadow, switched his lights on high beam, and noticed a horse.
Martin told a hearing in April this year that in a split-second the horse, which had been on the left of his van, was suddenly in front of him.
“It felt like the horse was galloping towards me,” he said in response to why he hadn’t stopped.
He described the moment of impact as “very scary”.
“I tried to swerve but hit it. It was a thud. I really felt it,” Martin said.
After the impact with the large horse he described as “having a chest bigger than mine”, Martin stopped, put on his hazard lights and walked back to find the animal dead on the side of the road.
The horse was later described by a neighbouring farmer, who gave evidence at the hearing, as a Clydesdale.
The defence revolved around the state of the fences on King’s property, if the horse had come from there, or whether poachers which were known to sometimes be in the area, might have allowed the horse to escape.
Constable Josiah Young of the Murchison police told the District Court in April that King and his partner had been warned prior to the accident about stock getting off the property and onto the road, and that efforts had been made to improve the situation.
Judge Jo Rielly adjourned the hearing for the defence to file submissions on whether there was a case to answer.
She convicted and discharged King after the hearing resumed in August.
King had succeeded in vacating an earlier guilty plea to the charge, which had been submitted on his behalf by a lawyer when he was not present.
King, who was representing himself at today’s appeal hearing, said because the conviction followed him successfully vacating the earlier guilty plea, that then invoked the “double jeopardy clause”.
The long-standing legal provision prevents a person acquitted, convicted or pardoned for any offence being tried again for the same offence.
King’s progression to a trial was triggered by his pleading not guilty to the charge.
Today he asked Justice Helen McQueen if his case could be dealt with as a non-criminal matter as he did not think it met the threshold of being considered a crime.
“I have not committed a crime. There’s no crime here but I’ve been tried as having committed one.”
Justice McQueen said because it had progressed as a criminal matter, it could only be an appeal against a criminal offence.
King suggested the criminal acts were committed instead by “agents of the Crown” and also asked the court to consider the “fraud and manipulation” by police, the Nelson District Court, and also the media for generating publicity which had “destroyed” his and his partner’s ability to earn an income.
King said neither of them was able to find work in Murchison, and they were unable to leave as they had a property to look after.
Justice McQueen told King that the appeal was unable to consider his concerns about the conduct of the police, lawyers and the court, and advised him to lay any complaints through the appropriate official channels.
“These are not things directly linked to today’s appeal,” said Justice McQueen, who added that the matter she was considering was whether the district court’s decision was wrong.
She then asked King for any specific reference to his claims that legislation existed which showed any appeal could consider “any misgivings of law” or “any crime committed in the judicial system”.
King told the court today that he had omitted to bring his notes with him which pointed to these specific references.
His attempt at repeating an argument over how stock may have got on to the road, including that there had been no professional assessment of the state of his fences, was criticised by the lawyer for the respondent.
Crown lawyer Abigail Goodison said the appeal was not an opportunity for the appellant to restate evidence in a more favourable manner, knowing now what was of benefit to the trial judge.
She said the prosecution didn’t have to prove the mechanics of how the horse got out, but rather the appellant had to prove he had maintained his boundary fences.
“This is an unusual case which has proceeded in an unusual way,” Goodison said.
She said her overall submission was there had been no error in the judgment that would give rise to there having been a miscarriage of justice.
