New Zealand Police v Turner-Critchley [2023] NZDC 12525 (19 June 2023)

Last Updated: 23 June 2023

EDITORIAL NOTE: CHANGES MADE TO THIS JUDGMENT APPEAR IN [SQUARE BRACKETS]

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IN THE DISTRICT COURT AT WELLINGTON I TE KŌTI-Ā-ROHE KI TE WHANGANUI-A-TARA

CRI-2022-085-001024

[2023] NZDC 12525

NEW ZEALAND POLICE

Prosecutor v

JORDAN VINCENT GRAHAM TURNER-CRITCHLEY Defendant

Hearing:	19 June 2023
Appearances:	M Speight for the Prosecutor K Preston for the Defendant
Judgment:	19 June 2023

NOTES OF JUDGE J M KELLY ON SENTENCING

The charges

[1] Mr Jordan Turner-Critchley, you appear for sentencing today having accepted the sentence indication I gave on 15 March 2023 in respect to two charges. They are:

• (a) one charge of doing a dangerous act pursuant to s 198(2)(a) of the Crimes Act 1961. The maximum penalty for this offence is seven years’ imprisonment; and
  

NEW ZEALAND POLICE v JORDAN VINCENT GRAHAM TURNER-CRITCHLEY [2023] NZDC 12525 [19 June 2023]

(b) one charge of rioting pursuant to s 87 of the Crimes Act 1961. The maximum penalty for this offence is two years’ imprisonment.

Approach to sentencing

[2] I intend to take an overall global starting point for both offences as they are directly related in time and circumstance rather than identifying a lead charge and applying an uplift.

Factual basis for sentencing

[3] The factual basis for sentencing today is set out in the summary of facts as follows.

[4] By way of background, on the morning of Tuesday 8 February 2022 a convoy of people in vehicles from around New Zealand converged on Parliament grounds in central Wellington.

[5] The primary motivation for this convoy appeared to be COVID-19 related, with protestors challenging the effectiveness of the government and calling for the repeal of mandates and/or vaccination.

[6] In addition, some protestors took up anti-government causes such as People’s Bill of Rights, Censorship, Three Waters Reform, Pike River and 1080 use in New Zealand.

[7] There were several specific groups involved in the protests, some with opposing agendas. Members of various organised criminal gangs were also involved.

[8] The protest action evolved into an unlawful occupation of parliamentary grounds and the surrounding streets. The number of protestors continued to grow, peaking at an estimated 3,000 at its height.

[9] Over 700 structures, including tents, were erected in and around Parliament grounds and several hundred vehicles were parked in the streets surrounding the immediate area, rendering them unusable to public traffic.

[10] Numerous children and family groups were present within the protest area throughout its duration.

[11] In addition to tents, several facilities were either delivered or built by the protestors, including several port-a-loos, mobile shower units and purpose-built toilet blocks. A nearby automotive building was repurposed as a commercial kitchen, preparing and supplying food.

[12] The grounds and streets around Parliament were scrawled with slogans and written narratives in support of the various causes. Placards were held and installed, and symbolic structures built.

[13] The protestors intent to control the area was made evident by the establishment of their own security staff and various signs erected on padlocked and chained gates, in some cases outlining the specific hours that the protestors permitted entry.

[14] The magnitude of the occupation caused significant and ongoing disruption to the streets and businesses in the near vicinity.

[15] Surrounding high schools and the law school were forced to close due to safety concerns. The start of the academic year for Victoria University students was significantly disrupted.

[16] Bus services were not able to operate within the main Wellington terminal for 23 days.

[17] On the final day of the occupation, the Wellington Railway Station was forced to close and all train services were cancelled for that night.

[18] Disruption to traffic and pedestrians during the occupation was extreme, with several streets being blocked by hundreds of illegally parked vehicles, tents and other makeshift structures established by the protestors.

[19] On multiple occasions commuters walking through or near the protest area were confronted with verbal abuse regarding their use of facial masks and/or their lack of engagement in the protest.

[20] At 6 am on the morning of Wednesday 2 March 2022, the fourth week of the occupation, police commenced an operation to maintain law and order and restore Parliament grounds and environs to a safe state of peaceful and lawful protest.

[21] Police established lines in various locations surrounding the occupied area. Verbal warnings communicated by loudspeakers announced that those who did not move on and vacate the area would be liable for arrest for trespass and/or obstruction.

[22] As the police systematically moved forward and cleared the streets and parliamentary grounds, a small faction of protestors engaged in a targeted and violent resistance against police.

[23] The group of protestors became riotous in nature, they confronted police verbally and physically, pushing against the police line, attempting to strike police with a variety of weapons, and deploying fire extinguishers into the faces of police. Liquids such as water, milk, paint and petrol were thrown over police.

[24] Protestors began to use weapons such as paving stones, bricks, planks of wood, bottles, pipes, wooden crates, road signs et cetera against police. A fire hose was also used by protestors against the police.

[25] At least six fires were deliberately lit by the protestors and then, fuelled with various items by other protestors including several gas cylinders thrown on to fires causing flaming explosions, seriously endangering police officers and protestors in the vicinity.

[26] Each of these fires caused the police advance to pause while attempts were made to extinguish them.

[27] Homemade shields were used by the protestors as they generated their own skirmish lines, and such aggressive actions were encouraged and supported by surrounding protestors.

[28] The activity continued for approximately 13 hours.

[29] Many police members sustained injuries ranging from moderate bruising and cuts to deep lacerations and contusions. Seven police officers received medical treatment at Wellington Hospital accident and emergency department.

[30] A large-scale clean-up operation was required, including the use of a grader, a digger, a cherry-picker, water blasters, forklifts and dump trucks. The cost for the clean up and repair of damage caused at Parliament and in the surrounding streets was significant.

Your offending

[31] Turning now to your offending.

[32] At about 3.30 pm on 2 March 2022, you were participating in protest activity at Parliament grounds in Wellington. You had been present at Parliament throughout the police operation and had been arrested and trespassed earlier that morning by police on Molesworth Street for refusing to leave the area when you were instructed to do so.

[33] You later returned to the protest. You were observed as part of a large group of protestors on the main lawn of Parliament who were confronting police, throwing projectiles and resisting requests to disperse.

[34] You were observed handing a fellow protestor a large wooden object to throw and you were providing guidance to others.

[35] You were wearing distinctive multi-coloured trousers, a dark hooded sweatshirt and at all times you endeavoured to cover your face with a small New Zealand flag worn like a bandana, coupled with a distinctive pair of white- rimmed sunglasses.

[36] You were later observed throwing a green glass bottle at police officers.

[37] In relation to the charge of doing a dangerous act, during the operation to clear the tents from Parliament grounds, the police had stopped their advance approximately 10 metres away from a group of tents and other items belonging to the protestors.

[38] You, carrying a light blue blanket or duvet and a red cigarette lighter, entered a blue nylon tent situated in front of the stationary police line. You exited the tent without the blanket. You picked up a red petrol container with a yellow nozzle. You poured a substance from the petrol container around the tent doorway and then placed it on the ground about a metre away.

[39] You gestured to the people around you to move away. When you were the only person in the vicinity of the tent you bent down in front of it for a short period of time before getting up, picking up the petrol container and walking away. Almost immediately plumes of dark smoke began coming from the tent before it was subsequently engulfed in flames.

[40] You carried the petrol container a short distance away and placed it on the ground before blending with the rest of the crowd.

[41] You were clearly depicted undertaking these actions in various videos that were posted on social media.

[42] The fire you lit changed the complexion of the protest, leading other protestors to light and fuel further fires as a result.

[43] Some time after the initial fire was ignited you located another fire burning nearby. You picked up a black plastic crate which was sitting amongst other items

littered around a tree on Parliament grounds. You walked towards the fire and threw the crate into the flames before walking away.

[44] At the time of this offending, you did not have any previous convictions.

Prosecution and defence submissions

[45] In my sentence indication I set out the submissions on behalf of the prosecution and defence. I do not intend to repeat them here.

Your personal circumstances

[46] I have read the pre-sentence report dated 6 June 2023. You are aged 31. You live in a house-bus on a section in Takaka. You are on a Ministry of Social Development supportive living payment as you are the caregiver for your mother who suffered a head injury.

[47] You are in good physical health and you are able to do community work.

[48] The address you have proposed for electronic monitoring has been assessed as suitable and you have consented to an electronically monitored sentence.

[49] Subsequent to this offending, you were sentenced to supervision. The report says you have engaged well with that sentence.

Discussion

[50] Having considered the submissions, the cases referred to by the prosecution and defence and your personal circumstances, I now need to assess an appropriate starting point to reflect the nature and seriousness of your offending and your culpability.

[51] The aggravating factors relating to your offending are as follows:

• (a) The use of violence. You used various items as missiles thrown at the police.

• (b) The extent of damage caused.
  
  • (c) The victims of your offending were police officers acting in the course of their duty.
    
  • (d) The risk of setting fires and fuelling fires was particularly high given that there were a large number of people in close proximity to those fires.
    

[52] It is accepted there is no guideline judgment for rioting or doing a dangerous act due to the wide range of circumstances in which such offending can occur.

[53] As I said in my sentence indication, taking into account the aggravating factors relating to your offending and the cases I referred to in my sentence indication, I consider a starting point of 22 months’ imprisonment to be appropriate in your case.

[54] I now need to consider whether your offending was aggravated or mitigated by your personal circumstances, and the reduction of sentence for your guilty pleas, with reference to the starting point.

[55] In relation to the aggravating and mitigating factors relating to you, as I said, you did not have any previous convictions at the time of this offending and, therefore, there is no uplift.

[56] You do have subsequent convictions for behaving threateningly and wilful damage. I do however take into account what Mr Preston said about your good compliance with the sentence of supervision.

[57] Taking all those matters into account, I am of the view that you are entitled to the usual discount of five per cent for your previous good character.

[58] As you entered guilty pleas to these charges, I am of the view that a discount of 20 per cent is appropriate. The guilty pleas were clearly not entered at the first available opportunity as you entered not guilty pleas and elected trial by jury. It was not until just over one year after your offending when I gave you a sentence indication.

[59] That equates to a total discount of 25 per cent which reduces the sentence by six months.

[60] That leaves an end-point sentence of 16 months’ imprisonment.

[61] I am of the view that a combination sentence of home detention together with community work is appropriate. That is because your offending needs to be denounced and you and others need to be deterred from offending in a similar way, but I am also of the view that you need to give something back to the community in recognition of the harm you caused to the community.

Sentence

[62] Taking all those matters into account, on each charge you are convicted and sentenced to home detention for six months.

[63] The start of the home detention sentence is deferred until tomorrow, 20 June 2023, to enable arrangements to be made for the connection of the electronically monitored equipment.

[64] The home detention residence is [address deleted].

[65] Probation have requested that the following special conditions apply in respect of your sentence of home detention:

• (a) You are to submit to electronic monitoring in the form of GPS technology as directed by a probation officer in order to monitor your compliance with any conditions relating to your whereabouts.
  
• (b) You are to comply with the requirements of electronic monitoring and provide access to the approved residence to the probation officer and representatives of the monitoring company for the purpose of maintaining the electronic monitoring equipment as directed by the probation officer.

[66] On each charge you are also convicted and sentenced to 200 hours’ community work.

[67] Those sentences are concurrent.

[68] Mr Turner-Critchley, if you stand down and wait for those orders to be served on you, and you need to be at your address tomorrow to await the arrival of the probation officer and monitoring company.

Judge J M Kelly

District Court Judge | Kaiwhakawā o te Kōti ā-Rohe

Date of authentication | Rā motuhēhēnga: 22/06/2023