‘Holidaymakers’ Attacked, One Kidnapped, By Kaikoura ‘Mob’ – updated

A group of four or five holidaymakers from Christchurch were attacked by a mob in Kaikoura early on Friday morning. Some locals are saying that it was a gang that was responsible (possibly the Mongrel Mob) and it is noticeable that some media reports are using the phrase “group of people” which is usually press code for gang.

Kaikoura is a small coastal town about 180km north of Christchurch on the east coast of New Zealand and a favourite setting-off point for whale watching tours.

Reports in the media about the incident varied.

The Marlborough Express‘ report says nothing about the visitors being holidaymakers and that the attack took place outside a pizza restaurant

Five Christchurch men were assaulted in an attack by a group of up to 30 people on Beach Rd in Kaikoura early this morning, police say.

Two of the men were ”severely beaten” and another kidnapped, taken out of town and dumped on the side of the road.

Sergeant Barry Hansen, of Kaikoura, said the victims, aged between 19 and 20, were attacked about 12.30am.

Two of the group were severely beaten while another was kidnapped, driven out of town in a Toyota Hilux, and dumped on the side of the road, he said. The abducted man managed to walk back into town.

A ”sharp weapon” may have been used during the incident, he said…read it in full here

Whereas a NZ Herald report says it was a group of 4 holidaymakers that was attacked and that the victims were set upon as they walked back to their hotel.

The reports of the injuries are pretty shocking and we wish the victims a full and speedy recovery from their ordeal. Was this just another attack on a party of tourists in New Zealand, or is there more to this story than is being released to the media?

We have an unconfirmed report that the men from Christchurch may have been Indian nationals, although that has not been confirmed at all.

Kaikoura is known to have links with the Mongrel Mob. In January of this year Mob members were part of a group of people who tried to flee from fishery officers after been caught trying to poach paua near Kaikoura. About 40 paua, (many of them undersized) were dumped back into the sea by the group when they saw fisheries officers watching. Police helped apprehend them when they tried to get away.

Local people made their feelings known about the attacks, with some saying that the town couldn’t be recommended to tourists any more and with hints that a gang may have been responsible. Kaikoura, it seems, suffers from many of the problems that plague small town New Zealand.

Their comments were published on Stuff, emphasis ours

forest

Kaikoura is a small town surely those responsible can be found and made an example of. There should be zero tolerance to this sort of behavior. Find them and throw away the key harsher penalities have to be imposed otherwise no one is going to pay any attention and it will happen time and time again. This is not the image that New Zealand wants to portray the is a very real danger of allowing a society of yobs that will take over many towns in New Zealand. It is an epidemic that has to be stamped out sooner rather than later.

tom m

it would appear that Kaiakoura has had its fair share of badly bred mogrel dog tuckers for a fair while now . I for one do not recommend the place to any tourists anymore.. If the cops do get this mob what will happen to them,, in short nothing, the government arent interested

chris

i lived in kaikoura and am well known there to.we never did things like that or our friends i just hope it wasnt a local gang.what gets me is that the police have yet to find 1 of the 30 people in the gang.are they crazy.how hard is it in a small town to find just 1.it has a small town reputation to gosip and the word travels fast.i live in oz now and yes its is nicer here but not all people are considerate.im shocked to hear that this has happened in such a beautiful small town.

Alcohol! ITS one of the worst drugs!

Yer i agree! No respect no hopers just drinking and fighting! while the government sells synthetic substances legally in dairies and lock up young good kids keeping outta trouble who just wana chill and not wanting to drink and why is it so normal for drunk to be complete assholes and its normal and excepted part of society! make alcohol illegal, come on and wake up, pathetic attitudes from the one eye nation! If those gang of kids were on the green natural! no anger no fights! logical????? stupid government! stop ya crap – - you sell alcohol and tax it! has anyone ever heard of someone overdosing on the happy backey! nope!!!!!

craig

I was in kaikoura today and this country is so full of uptight angry wee teenages with bad attitudes! Suppose the only thing to do is move to oz where most people are calm, happy and friendly! Let the animals in nz carry on with there minor insignificant angry lives. Harsh but the truth isn’t pretty.

Update13 November 2010

We have received word that the people who had been attacked were a group of young students up from Christchurch on a fishing trip, still no real news on the mens’ backgrounds, or where the link with India came from – if indeed there is one.

We’ve also been told that some of the perpetrators have already appeared in court. This has yet to be reported on by the media, whether they were gang members, ‘wannabes’ or unconnected with organised gangs remains unknown.

Fotunately another report appeared in The Press yesterday, written by David Williams and Blair Ensor, in which a “stitched and bandaged Christchurch man” recounted a ‘‘thuggish’’ bashing by a mob in Kaikoura and the abduction of a friend.”

Their report stated

“Builder and barman Ben Murgatroyd, 20, said the ‘‘frightening’’ beating left him with a suspected broken cheekbone, bruises to his head and an eye almost closed over.

‘‘I tried to run across the road and run around the group, but one guy caught me,’’ he said. ‘‘I went unconscious and woke up 30 or 40 metres down the road, covered in blood, being kicked by six or seven people.’’

One of Murgatroyd’s friends was bundled into the back of a Hilux, ‘‘kicked around’’ and had to walk back to Kaikoura after being dumped at a dairy factory out of town.

‘‘Seeing him was a huge relief,’’ Murgatroyd said.

The report revealed that the group was comprised of eight friends from Christchurch – all aged 19 and 20 who had booked a Kaikoura fishing charter as a birthday celebration.

It seems that the attack may have been started after “harsh words” were exchanged with an “aggressive” driver whose friends then rallied round for a fight.

Murgatroyd went on to say

‘‘It was just a thuggish, small-town mentality. They jumped us and started yelling out things like ‘Get the f… out of our town’ and ‘ Don’t f… with the locals’.

He and his friends were yesterday relieved to be leaving the town, almost 200 kilometres north of Christchurch, after a day of giving police statements and receiving medical treatment.

‘‘It’s definitely put me off [going back to Kaikoura],’’ he said.’’

Update 15 November 2010

Five men were later charged please read Five Arrested In Kaikoura Mob Attack

Man Pierced By Stingray Barb

Stingray

A man has been taken to hospital in Auckland after he was pierced in the chest by a stingray whilst scuba diving in the Hauraki Gulf, scene of New Zealand’s only stingray fatality.

He was airlifted from Pakatoa Island with moderate injures and is said to be undergoing tests. Neither his name, nor his nationality have been released to the press.

In January Canadian tourist, Matt Brazeau, suffered a severe laceration when his thigh was pierced clean through by a stingray barb whilst standing in surf after falling out of his canoe near Waitara, near New Plymouth.  He told the Taranaki Daily News

“I was reaching for the kayak and felt this unbelievable pain through my leg. It was as though something had bit me but with electrical impulses. It was really fast, in and out within a second. There was no movement, no action in the water except for me jumping back into the kayak. It had to be a stingray.”

Mr  Brazeau was also taken to hospital where he received 40 stitches in his thigh. The barb missed a major artery by a few millimetres.

Stingray injuries are not uncommon in NZ

In February 2009 Moteuka resident, Michael French, was lucky to be alive after he was airlifted to hospital after a Stingray inflicted a severe laceration to his side.

His injuries were so bad that it was thought he’d been attacked by a shark and the beaches were closed whilst a search was conducted.

His injury was the fourth in two months and it was predicted that there were more attacks to come because of an increase in rays in NZ’s waters.

The other incidents include

• February 2009 a South African tourist was stabbed in the arm by a stingray whilst fishing at Hot Water Beach, Coromandel.

• A month earlier a 11 year old girl from Woodville was airlifted to hospital from the Riversdale Beach, Wairarapa suffering from serious lacerations to one arm and one knee.

• That was just a matter of days after a previous Stingray encounter in Pohara Beach, Golden Bay when a woman was airlifted to Nelson hospital with a barb embedded in her leg.
  

New Zealand’s only Stingray fatality is thought to be an 18 year old woman who died from injuries to her chest and thigh whilst bathing in the Hauraki Gulf, ten miles from Thames in 1939.

The Sting Ray barb has been described as “as deadly as a bayonet“. New Zealand has 26 species of rays and skates including Electric and Longtail Stingrays and they’re very often seen in shallower waters around the coast. One species of electric ray, the New Zealand Torpedo is endemic to the country.

The Longtail Stingray can grow to to 4 metres, including the tail which is twice the length of its disc-shaped body. They can be found shallow water and down to about 400 metres.

Longtail stingrays are feared because of the serrated, poisonous spines at the base of their tails, which they thrust into anything that tries to catch them. If a person accidentally stands on them they will be injured, but these stingrays do not seek out victims. Growing to a maximum of 214 kilograms, they feed on crabs, mantis shrimps, molluscs, worms and conger eels. (source Teara)

Still No Inquest For Emily Jordan

 

Emily Jordan died riverboarding in NZ

Almost three years after her death and there still hasn’t been an inquest into the death of British tourist Emily Jordan.

Emily Jordan drowned whilst participating in a commercially organised river boarding adventure on the Kawarau River in New Zealand on 29 April 2008.

In August 2009 Mad Dog River Boarding was prosecuted for health and safety breaches in relation to her death and fined. At the time of the trial her father Chris Jordan asked for an inquest to be held.

Shortly afterward Mr Jordan wrote to New Zealand’s Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism John Key asking for regulation of the NZ Adventure Tourism Industry, saying safety regulation in NZ was “third world“.

In response the the government announced a ‘review’ of the industry, after some delays the results of which were published in August, revealing that the were gaps in  safety procedures within the industry and recommended auditing and registration (not licensing) of adventure tourism operators in New Zealand.

A few months ago, in an interview with Scene, “The free voice of Queenstown,” Chris Jordan has said he was going push for an inquest into his daughter’s death to be held in the UK if one isn’t held in NZ. He said that he was disappointed to still be waiting to hear if one will be held.

“I don’t believe that I sitting in the UK should be insisting on an inquest in New Zealand – it should happen as a matter of priority…It’s just bizarre to me.”

Scene said:

“Otago-Southland regional coroner David Crerar told Mountain Scene last week that he won’t decide whether he’ll conduct an inquest into the Jordan death till after a Government investigation into adventure tourism led by Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson.

Jordan: “I believe that David Crerar is getting the two issues mixed up – there’s a ministerial inquiry which is investigating extreme sports … I don’t understand why [he] has to wait till the end of the ministerial inquiry because that’s got nothing to do with Emily’s individual case.”

As coroner, Crerar has the power to make potentially law-changing recommendations through an inquest. “I’m hoping that David Crerar will make recommendations with regard to improved safety of riverboarding,” Jordan says.

“Part of Emily’s legacy must be to create better knowledge of how to avoid these deaths in the future. If no fundamental change takes place, it will happen again.”

He was absolutely right, the review has got nothing to do with the details of Emily’s death, if there are lessons to be learned about why she died what better way to do so than by holding an inquest?

And now, months after the report was released an inquest has yet to be held, and to out knowledge a full inquiry into her death has yet to be performed. Why is that exactly?

Has a decision been made to delay it until after the forthcoming tourism season, so as to avoid adverse publicity harming ‘trade’ or is it to be held back until the Rugby World Cup is over – for the same reason?

The Queenstown coroner, David Crerar, admitted to Scene that there were:

“a number of ancillary matters relating to the death of Emily Jordan that could be the subject of closer scrutiny”

But said he was waiting to see if they were addressed in the report.

So were they addressed in the report, or not?

According to a BBC news report an inquest into Emily’s death was opened in the UK on 9 May 2008, shortly after she died, however it was adjourned.

The West Bromwich coroner, Robin Balmain, said he would wait until a full inquiry into her death was conducted and he hoped the full inquest could be held in New Zealand.

The West Bromwich Advertiser shed more light on Mr Balmain’s decision in an article published on 9 May 2008:

“He added he had been advised by the authorities in New Zealand that the medical cause of death of the 21-year-old, of Valley House, Trimpley, was asphyxiation, due to drowning.

He explained: “She was on a trip with her boyfriend. They were river boarding and, in the course of that, she got into difficulties and drowned.

“This is a very distressing case. The circumstances are quite tragic. I understand she had recently completed a law degree and it is very sad her life should be ended in this way.”

He said there would be a full inquiry in New Zealand and law in England required him to resume the hearing in “due course”.

He added: “When the Government published the draft Coroner’s Bill in June, 2006 they promised they would explore the possibility of coroners not holding inquests in this country in certain circumstances.
“If there is a full inquiry in New Zealand this could be such a case. I hope the Government will give due consideration to that possibility.”

Here we are, almost three years on since Emily Jordan died and there has still not been a full inquiry, nor has there been an inquest in NZ.

The circumstances of Emily’s death, and the lack of regulation governing river boarding in NZ, risk being being rolled-up together into the general investigation into adventure sports and getting conveniently ‘lost’ within it, never to be heard of again.

For that to happen would be manifestly unjust, Emily and her family deserve better.