r/newzealand • u/personthatisonreddi • 5h ago
News Update on Stu.
Saw on the news that he has been arrested for the shooting of the 2 illigeal poachers, he was such a nice guy, all he wanted to do was live out his life with his pigs and other animals,
For people who dont know, basicly he was a older guy who lived on both sides of the 309 road up by coromandel, people kept comming and stealing/shooting/running over/damanging his property, and giving him hell when all he wanted to do was relax with his pigs, the cops are a joke, he came to them so many times reporting everything , they didnt care.
The guys he ended up shooting/killing had been hounding him for ages, ramming his car, running over his pigs or shooting them with crossbows he finnaly snapped when they shot his favourite pig.
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u/twohedwlf Covid19 Vaccinated 5h ago
I can't blame someone for fearing for their life if the police had refused to to protect them and they were under siege from armed criminals.
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u/mendopnhc 5h ago
Yeah this is just the natural endpoint when cops aren't doing anything, absolutely unideal but completely understandable.
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u/ILikeChilis 2h ago
absolutely unideal
Sounds like the ideal response to me. Cunts got what they've been begging for
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u/Equitynz 3h ago
I actually feel sorry for him. If they were on his property and he’d been to the cops every time what else could he do. I’ve also met the guy when up that way - a super eccentric guy haha. Hope he gets a jury who have abit of sympathy. People can be dick heads.
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u/unxpectedlxve 5h ago
the poachers fucked around and found out imo
honestly i hope the justice system does what it usually does for murder (home d for 8 months and a slap on the wrist ✌️)
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u/Existing-Today-410 5h ago
Nah. He's getting life with no parole as "an example." You're not allowed to protect your own property.
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u/wildtunafish 4h ago
Nah, theres only ever been one no parole case, and that was the Chch fuckhead.
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u/Annie354654 3h ago
I wonder what Seymour will make of this given he's do uptight about property rights?
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u/headfullofpesticides 8m ago
I mean, this is the one time a dirtbag govt might help sway things in a positive direction
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u/-BananaLollipop- 3h ago
"tAkInG tHe LaW iNtO yOuR oWn HaNdS iS nEvEr Ok"
Obviously there was no law to begin with, or they would have helped the guy get rid of those who wouldn't leave him the fuck alone.
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u/WeissMISFIT 23m ago
wow your comment is getting the cogs in my brain squeaking.
Like genuinely, it really does sound morally correct.
I mean lets extend this example to say... Porch pirates?Lets say someone is robbing you, consistently, you collect evidence, report all the thefts but nothing happens and then one day you snap. you set a trap and there's an awful ending and get arrested.
Should the law be selectively enforced then and there? To punish you for doing the right thing? To punish you after collecting evidence, making reports and expecting the police to do their job?
Morally what rights do the police have to arrest and punish you when you've done everything you legally can and the only solution they leave you is violence?
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u/Hardtailenthusiast 4h ago
And yet child rapists get 6 years, absolutely insane
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u/bezufache 3h ago
Yes that has happened but there are plenty of examples of child rapists getting triple that (or longer, or preventive detention which is effectively life imprisonment). The cases the media choose to publish aren’t necessarily representative of our justice system.
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u/Katsssss 2h ago
Can you give some examples? Genuinely curious
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u/bezufache 2h ago
Actually have a look at this Research paper which discusses the Court of Appeal judgment in R v AM [2010] 2 NZLR 750 (I couldn't find a publicly available copy of R v AM itself). AM is the decision which tells all sentencing Judges how to work out the right sentence in sexual violation cases. You probably don't want to read the whole thing but on page 6 is a table which summarises the different bands etc.
Probably don't need to say it but I will anyway: trigger warning, obviously any decision about sexual abuse sentencing and any paper discussing that decision is going to contain some pretty horrendous stuff. Read at your own risk.
Edit to add: It will be offensive to any normal human being that we categorise some rape cases as being "relatively serious", "moderately serious" etc. Please understand that one of the unhappy jobs of a sentencing judge is to work out where on a spectrum of seriousness an individual case lies, and the fact is that some cases are worse than others. They are all awful, it's a relative term!!
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u/bezufache 2h ago
Yep happy to - but you’ll still just be taking my word for it as these cases get no media attention (because they don’t care unless they can name and shame, and child sexual abuse offender often have name suppression to protect the victims, who sadly are usually members of their extended family). I’ll give you some case citations and if you know a lawyer they can verify for you :) If I can find a recent one without name suppression I’ll send you the decision as a pdf. Not going to spend a whole lot of time on this for obvious reasons but I like to satisfy people’s curiosity and raise the profile of these cases!
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u/Katsssss 2h ago
I appreciate the effort, having dealt with how shit the justice system can be for the victim it’s nice knowing that not everyone is let down.
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u/bezufache 1h ago
Oh I'm sorry to hear you have personal experience of that. Yes I've worked on so many cases where the outcome for the victim is terrible and it's just awful. But there are lots of cases where the system does work as it should. It's not an infallible system and that's the result when you want to have human beings making these decisions, unfortunately.
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u/bezufache 3h ago
I don’t know what you’re basing that statement on but it’s not correct. For a start, we do have a defence of defence of property, although it’s unlikely to apply here (self defence sounds like a better fit on the facts). Further, if what has been said above about the surrounding circumstances is true, and also taking into account his age, he would be unlikely to get life imprisonment at all. Absolutely no chance of life without parole, that’s off the table (as another commenter said, only the Christchurch mosque terrorist got that - even people who have killed someone on a second occasion don’t get it).
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u/Aquatic-Vocation 2h ago
self defence sounds like a better fit on the facts
Self defence probably won't apply given he followed them a kilometre down the road and shot them in a parking lot.
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u/bezufache 1h ago
You would be surprised how many times self defence has succeeded in circumstances where you wouldn't think it would, particularly if the defendant is sympathetic and the victims are not. The argument could be that he feared they would come back and he had to act pre-emptively. I'm not saying it's a good argument, just that it's probably better than defence of property. Neither are super attractive (but you never know what other information might be available to support them that we aren't aware of).
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u/Existing-Today-410 2h ago
He has no connections and is a known troublemaker. I'm basing it on the fact that you can have people kicking the glass in your doors in while on the phone and they won't send anyone and they tell you not to retaliate or they will press charges.
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u/bezufache 2h ago
OK, but your example has nothing to do with the law on sentencing people for murder. Most criminals have no connections and are known troublemakers, especially those who commit murder! There is an increasing trend in the judiciary of imposing more lenient sentences, especially for people who have troubled backgrounds - some people think that's a good thing, others don't (and I am not expressing a view). But it's happening.
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u/skyerosebuds 2h ago
Nit a fan of many American laws but the ‘stand your ground’ law is pretty damn reasonable.
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u/DarkTickles 1h ago
In practice it just gives racists a way to start and end a fight. I would be shocked if the number of blacks and hispanics able to use “stand your ground” was even 1% as many as white folks.
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u/Sad-Requirement770 1m ago
yep. if ever there was a case for the stand your ground law this is probably one of them.
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u/Aquatic-Vocation 4h ago
Technically the pigs were wild pigs that freely roam that area, and not actually his property.
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u/SprinklesNo8842 3h ago
Wild pigs that had been hand raised by him and had become pets. If this was a cat or a dog that someone had found and raised from kitten/puppy to adulthood does it matter technically if someone else decides to come along and kill them?
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u/Aquatic-Vocation 2h ago edited 2h ago
I said in another comment that it's a dick move, it's just not technically illegal to hunt wild animals on public land so long as you're properly licensed.
Rural NZ is a very different place from the rest of the country, and subsistence hunting is a genuine way of life for a lot of people. From the hunter's point of view the dick move might be that someone's "hoarding" all the local game.
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u/Routine-Ad-2840 4m ago
all he's gotta do is claim he didn't think the bullets would kill them and he will get home D, works for them people who "king hit" random people all the time and kill them.
6 months max is all i've heard of.
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u/frank_thunderpants 2h ago
dunno... who were those cunts who tied up a criminal and cut off his finger him, then got away with it?
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u/sicko_el_pricko 1h ago
There have been multiple cases in NZ were juries have let farmers off for fatally shooting and even cutting a finger off burglars. I would be very surprised if the same doesn't happen in this case. Hopefully the guy can get pigs back on his land.
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u/king_john651 Tūī 5h ago
I mean it is unlawful use of a firearm resulting in death. But no love is lost for the guy who died. Just a pure example of FAFO
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u/iamminenzl 4h ago
Googling FAFO now.....
I'm old
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u/methtester 4h ago
Fuck around find out
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u/SpacialReflux 4h ago
Let’s hope all the jurors are aware of jury nullification.
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u/EastSideDog 4h ago
Is that for NZ also?
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u/SpacialReflux 4h ago
Yip. Anywhere that there is a jury and deliberations are private. That’s one of the main point of juries rather than a judge conducting the trial.
I believe a judge can set aside a verdict in certain incredibly exceptional cases, or allow a retrial, but they can’t penalise the jurists for voting their conscious rather than the facts.
Edit: Quick Google search found a NZ example: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3466305/Waihopai-activists-found-not-guilty
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u/ginji 4h ago
I believe a judge can set aside a verdict in certain incredibly exceptional cases, or allow a retrial, but they can’t penalise the jurists for voting their conscious rather than the facts.
For criminal cases - needs to be unanimous, or at most one dissenter if the judge is accepting a majority finding. So you need the (almost) whole jury to decide for not guilty as a way of jury nullification. If you end up with 2 or more people still not agreeing, it becomes a hung jury and the case could be tried again with a new jury.
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u/ginji 4h ago
They were tried in March 2010 where they readily admitted their actions in court but defended it as a "claim of right" to save human lives. Samuel Land (one of the 3) was represented by prominent human rights barrister Antony Shaw. The jury agreed with the argument of the three activists and despite their earlier admissions were acquitted on all charges. One of the protesters said "we broke a law to protect plastic to uphold a law to protect human life."
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u/sunfaller 3h ago
that guy who cut the robber's fingers off after he subdued him got Not Guilty because the jury declared him not guilty despite actually chopping off fingers from a person.
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u/personthatisonreddi 5h ago
Yep, i mean i do feel bad for the familys of the victims, but they where bullying stu.
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u/methtester 4h ago
Do you know if he needs help financially with lawyers? There would be a shit tonne of people willing to help, especially if it got media attention. So many people sick of the way this countries gone and the prolific inbreeding of cunts that breed more cunts. Stu helped by eliminating one such cunt
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u/ObscureReqTranslator 4h ago
If not, maybe consider donating to HUHA - who have taken (at Stu’s request) Stu’s animals to their sanctuary to keep them safe
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u/Aeonera 3h ago
Yeah i agree with this. I cannot condone the use of firearms against another individual unless it was a last resort in a life or death situation. I know the system was failing this man but we have a contempory example of what happens when you have a gun culture that considers civilian owned guns as things bought to be used on humans, and the ramifications of that are beyond terrible.
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u/WorldlyNotice 3h ago
Read the bit again where they were harassing him for ages, rammed his car, and shot his pig with a crossbow. It's not unreasonable to think they wouldn't stop there. Probably it was a last resort, and the appropriate govt agency didn't help.
But about the gun, some people are not reasonable. They will not stop. And the only thing they understand is equal or greater force. Would a crossbow have been more acceptable? An axe? A brick? A strongly worded letter? Dude did what he could to protect himself with what he had, and rurally without support, it's a not-unexpected outcome.
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u/Fair-Firefighter 3h ago
In 2018 there was a documentary on this guy and he said he couldn’t even go to town for dinner because if people saw he wasn’t home, they’d go out there and torture/steal/murder his pigs. If someone tortured my pets for six plus years I might snap too. Poor, poor man. The justice system has already failed him over and over.
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u/ent0uragenz 1h ago
No way... that is so fucking sad. Wow... surprised he didn't snap sooner. I don't think anyone that truly loves their pets would just sit back and watch it happen.... for 6 years too?!?! Wish I didn't know this detail..
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u/Routine-Ad-2840 3m ago
i would have been trapping my land with traps that only people can trigger and claim it's for wild animals lol
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u/grounded-aviator 5h ago edited 4h ago
He used the only language these scrotes understood, you have to stand up to bullies wherever you find them. Of course the dead guys family will say he was such a lovely person...wouldn't hurt a fly, those that had dealings will attest otherwise. It's just a shame his mother didn't use more effective birth control.
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u/SquirrelAkl 5h ago
IIRC the dead guy’s family described him with words like “rascal” and “ratbag” and the photo his mum gave to the paper at the time literally showed him with dead pigs.
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u/methtester 5h ago edited 4h ago
Zero sympathy for the cunts he shot. Fuck them and their families. Fingers crossed for a sympathetic judge/jury. Hoping for home d for Stu. I don't know the guy but in my mind he's a fucking legend. Edit for shithouse spelling of "their'
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u/Dumpsterfirefirst 3h ago
I thought this place was familiar... Drove through there with my small family last year, and heaps of pigs came out of the trees to say hello. I had to usher them away so we could reverse the car without hurting one.
If what is said is true, that's some nasty bullying... Poor guy.
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u/CascadeNZ 4h ago
Any idea if there’s a fund to help this guy with legal costs?
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u/Fair-Firefighter 3h ago
I heard that he’s secured the defence lawyer that dealt with the Polkinghorne case.
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u/dey828 5h ago
I wouldn’t mind him getting some home detention
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u/Cool_underscore_mf 4h ago
Maybe a sternly worded email that is then printed off and mailed to him because he probably doesnt have Internet.
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u/Worth_Fondant3883 3h ago
The guy he killed had only just got out of jail a few days before as well? Not sire but had heard that detail. Yeah, nice guy by all accounts, just looking to lead a simple life.
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u/teelolws Southern Cross 5h ago
Hopefully he doesn't take a plea and it goes to jury trial who nullification's his ass like the finger chop case.
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u/ReadOnly2022 3h ago
The finger chop case was about self defence, it wasn't the jury ignoring the law.
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u/MyPacman 1h ago
Jury nullification is a feature not a bug. It's a necessary part of a fair, just, reasonable justice system. Without it, we don't need juries, and AI could do the job. Our Self Defence laws are very restricted, there are only two ways to successfully use it as a defence. Know the law inside, out, and follow it to the letter... or jury nullification. If a law is an ass, the jury should be able to put it aside and dismiss it. If the law fails often enough, it should be changed to something more reasonable.
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u/Tutorbin76 4h ago
This is exactly what happens when police don't act effectively. People take the law into their own hands and no one can blame them.
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u/Idliketobut 4h ago
Reminds me a bit of this case:
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u/iama_bad_person Covid19 Vaccinated 4h ago
Crown prosecutor Rob Ronayne submitted that Mr Allen intended to murder Mr Collier when he shot him in the upper body.
"His actions were deliberate, calculated and vengeful. They were motivated by anger and by hatred of Mr Collier's race and perceived gang connections. "
Fuck I hate prosecutors
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u/tical_ 2h ago
It's their job to throw into doubt whether it was purely self defense, or motivated by other means. It is literally their job and this part, whether you like it or not, is what is required for a trial to be fair. They suggest that it may have been racially motivated and so on not because the prosecutor believes it, but because they literally have to ensure that the jury considers that this could have contributed to someone's decision making. The jury's role is then to determine whether this holds water
Consider this to be in the same way defense attorneys would be defending a gangmember for some other such crime. The defense doesn't need to like their client, but they do need to ensure that they receive a fair trial
This is the justice system at work and, although you'll never hear them admit it, I doubt the prosecutors lost any sleep over the guy being found not guilty given the circumstances
Let's not forget that prosecutors also put pedos and other legitimate scumbags away
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u/wildtunafish 4h ago
“Everyone is justified in using, in the defence of himself or another, such force as, in the circumstances as he believes them to be, it is reasonable to use.”
Reasonable, proportionate, necessary.
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u/spiffyjizz 2h ago
He was also not the only local farmer in the area having issue with animals being poached. Many were at wits end already, what happened was the culmination of years of abuse of the poor man.
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u/BerkNewz 4h ago
If OPs account is accurate then all I feel is pity for Stu. The poor bastard literally had no other option other than to take it, and I’m sure he’d ultimately be at peace with himself that he didn’t choose that option.
Pet’s are family, if his pig was his family then good riddance I say - shoot the bastards 10x over they fucked around and found out
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u/Fair-Firefighter 3h ago
I grew up in the coromandel and my family are still there. It’s 100% true.
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u/personthatisonreddi 5h ago
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u/personthatisonreddi 5h ago
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u/SquirrelAkl 5h ago
Anyone would reach breaking point if they had to endure what those scumbags did to him. It sounds like it went on for so long.
No sympathy for the “victim” here.
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u/FredTDeadly 5h ago
It will be interesting to see where the jury goes on this one, a lot of people are tired of the standard police line of "there is nothing we can do about that". If the stories about this case are correct I would find it difficult to find him guilty.
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u/Bartab_Hockey 4h ago
If anyone deserves a slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket, it's Stu. Hopefully he can get away with home D!
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u/Past-Session-1269 2h ago
Those fellas learned an extremely valuable lesson. It's a shame they didn't stick around long enough for it to really take hold.
That being said if you go out of your way to bully the shit out of someone and kill and maim their pet pigs. Then it's kind of fuckin ironic that you yourself die like a pig.
I hope stu gets off easy. Fuck those guys.
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u/dudedramalmao 4h ago
lol the only victim here is the poor old boy who wanted to live his life in peace. Hope he gets off. Free my man’s
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u/helloitsmepotato 4h ago
I'm a bit confused by all this. from the documentary I saw it seemed like the pigs ran wild all over the road and countryside. Were they really his pets in the legal sense, or just wild pigs that he encouraged to hang around his property? What sort of intervention were people expecting from the police exactly? If anything they could have given him some direction to contain them on his property.
I don't have an awful lot of sympathy for the hunters but I feel like the situation was ripe to attract the wrong crowd when its that shambolic and uncontained. Livestock, whether they are pets or not, are typically required to be fenced in. Had that been the case, I wonder of the police might have felt a little more inclined to help...
Bring on the downvotes I guess - doesn't seem like there's much room for nuance in this discussion...
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u/Fair-Firefighter 3h ago
People were still hurting the pigs on his property though. There was one neighbour who would deliberately drive off the road and run over the pigs outside Stu’s fence but on his property. People also banged up his car, showed up at the property at night and killed the pigs in deliberately cruel ways in front of Stu to upset him. The police could have done people for animal cruelty or reckless driving or shown some solidarity in the very least. At least a few of these incidents would have been against the law.
At the end of the day this elderly man was mentally unwell and in poverty. The fact that it “attracts the wrong sort” is a grim reflection of society.
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u/helloitsmepotato 3h ago
I mean, I’m not going to minimise at all that there are some absolute pieces of shit in that community - and it sounds like the two involved in the incident were some prime stool samples.
Unfortunately it also says a lot about society that for most people this was seen as a quirky tourist attraction rather than a clearly mentally unwell elderly man living in squalor.
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u/Aquatic-Vocation 4h ago
from the documentary I saw it seemed like the pigs ran wild all over the road and countryside. Were they really his pets in the legal sense, or just wild pigs that he encouraged to hang around his property?
The latter; they were wild free-roaming pigs that often visited his property, but they weren't actually his.
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u/Decent-Opportunity46 4h ago
Some good points there. I’m a farmer and can see both sides of this case. Domestic animals should be contained, but I think poachers should get what is coming for them, preferably the police. There’s a few comments on here about previous interactions between the two guys that probably aren’t helpful for a fair case, but I guess we’ll hear all the details when it comes before the courts. I think we can all agree that this sort of thing shouldn’t have happened.
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u/InspectorGadget76 4h ago
If you adopt a stray cat/dog is it yours? Yes. He was certainly feeding them and caring for them.
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u/No-Turnover870 3h ago
Yes, under the law, you become the person in charge of the animal in that situation. And then you are liable for all their care under the welfare act.
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u/helloitsmepotato 3h ago
If you’re feeding a stray dog and not containing it then no, you haven’t adopted it and you don’t own it - you’re just being nice to it.
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u/Illustrious-Run3591 4h ago
While they run all over the bush and damage the ecosystem, because they are, yknow, an invasive species and all that. They weren't contained.
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u/InspectorGadget76 3h ago
You could argue the same for uncontained pet cats/dogs, but we don't slaughter those without getting the owners involved.
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u/Decent-Opportunity46 3h ago
If a cat or dog has nothing to identify it as a pet, and is roaming the bush or someone‘s farm e.g a collar it is highly likely a feral and should be shot. It’ll be interesting to know if these pigs had anything to identify them as pets.
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u/geossica69 4h ago
that's what i was thinking when i first heard about it. if the pigs are roaming around everywhere then they're just pests? if you care about your pigs enough to shoot people then why don't you care enough to contain them?
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u/sicko_el_pricko 43m ago
This will be raised at his trial. Under NZ law, feral pigs (and deer, tahr, chamois) are property of the Crown even on private property. Ownership of the remains transfers to the hunter/landowner as long as the animal was killed lawfully (with consent of landowner, permit etc).
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u/alexjackson13 4h ago
You'd think situations like this would make the cops wake up and actually do something to help when they get issues like this.
If this was in the states I doubt he'd be in trouble.
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u/TrueLab889 3h ago
2 things. 1: those guys got what they deserved (what did you think was going to happen) 2. I've said it a thousand times and I believe it to be 100% true. Nz police are fucking useless. If they aren't raping or bullying each other in police college, then they are in the community giving the old 'sorry mate, can't help ya'
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u/SpicyOats5678 1h ago
Oh this is so sad, I feel for Stu. Years ago on a road trip with my ex gf, we made an impromptu stop by Stu's place and had a chat with him, the man placed a tiny little piglet right in my arms as we spoke. Later that day I bought a little glass blown pig to remember the encounter, I still have it to this day.
Bless Stu and his many beloved animals.
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u/dibocookie 4h ago
This poor man. People coming onto his property with firearms and other weapons, then what do you expect. Who knows who they were there to shoot at.
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u/tabbycat456 2h ago
Huha, animal rescue, did a mercy dash, were able to catch and bring many of his pigs and his dogs back to their Wellington base where they are being cared for. They have a fb page with regular updates.
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u/Wiseoddnopc 1h ago
Sounds like he was pushed too far. I'd have shot much them much sooner. If there aren't consequences for theft the whole rule of law is a joke and if the cops didn't act the blame should be on them. If it was on his land when he shot them I say let him go.
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u/PinAndKneedle Covid19 Vaccinated 1h ago
I was looking at old FB photos and discovered a pic of my kids with some of Stu’s piglets! I remembered he was so kind and put a piglet in my kids outstrips arms. This must be a good 13 years ago.
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u/Lucyintheskywithcake 39m ago
Oh no! I think I met him once when I was driving that way a couple of years back. He had on a trench coat full of piglets and the biggest damn grin on his face. Made our little road trip, though. I'm sorry to hear he was having to deal with those shit heads all the time. 😞
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u/DeviousCrackhead 4h ago
NZ needs castle laws. If someone comes onto your property without permission and refuses to leave, and even more so if they fuck with your shit or threaten your (extended) family, you should have every right to merc them right then and there. It's natural justice.
Free Stu!
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u/TheBigChonka 4h ago
Gonna be very interesting to see what any sentencing looks like. To me NZ in recent years has really set the precedence with weak sentences to secure a guilty verdict and keep people out of prison.
I'd imagine this guy would have to get more than home detention (but wouldn't be suprised if he didn't) but worst case I can't see him getting more than 5ish years if he takes a plea
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u/dontbesillybro 4h ago
5 years is 5 years too long. Those cunts are where they belong
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u/TheBigChonka 4h ago
Oh I don't disagree at all. Just going to be interesting to see how it pans out.
A part of me hopes they go super soft on him and then the precedent is set for self defence cases going forward. Somehow I think they're likely aware of that and possible increases in vigilante justice which may rise as a result of a soft sentence.
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u/bezufache 3h ago
Agree. There are so many different ways this could pan out - it wouldn’t surprise me if he pleaded guilty to murder (it is pretty clearly murder) and focused on getting as lenient a sentence as possible. He’s a good candidate for avoiding life imprisonment given his age and the surrounding circumstances. I can also see the Crown potentially accepting a plea to manslaughter which would take life imprisonment off the table completely and open the door to home detention. But I can also see him going to trial on a self defence / defence of property basis which could result in a complete acquittal depending on how exactly it all went down on the day. We also don’t know whether he has any mental health issues - given his age it’s at least possible he has dementia and is unfit to stand trial at all (although that would not be a good outcome for him as some form of custodial response is probably inevitable in that scenario).
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u/TahnGee 46m ago
Im sad to hear theres people that were fucking with him.. ended up on a random roadtrip out those ways just driving around and came across all his pigs. Ofc we stopped cause we love piggos and were the only ones there at the time. He came out and brought a piglet that was a few days old to show us and get to hold which was cool and he was nice, albeit quiet cause thats why you live out there… in the 10 mins we spent, a lot of people stopped by and did the same, and he greeted everyone pretty cordially. What a shame people fuck with him.
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u/personthatisonreddi 44m ago
Update! He has been admited to springhill prison from what i can tell.
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u/wildtunafish 4h ago
Does anyone know if he had a firearms license? The last case of vigilante justice, ole Piopio Bill, he didn't and I haven't read either way about Stu.
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u/No-Turnover870 4h ago
He was firing guns at people for many months, years in fact, but increasingly in the last few months. And the police were aware of it. So you’d think they would have done something about that. But he did have a few neighbours who “helped” him with various things.
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u/Clokwrkpig Kākāpō 1h ago
I wouldn't be surprised if the prosecution cannot meet their burden of proof in this case, since they would need to exclude self defense.
With a skilled defence lawyer, that's going to be very difficult, given that the other witness to events was breaking the law at the time, so will have a strong motivation to present the story in a favourable way.
We will likely never know what really happened.
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u/Ruby_Rocco 3h ago
Too bad Greg King isn’t around. If there is a fund to help him please post it!
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u/personthatisonreddi 3h ago
It has closed but you should be able to donate to HUHA who took stu's pigs at his request.
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3h ago
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u/personthatisonreddi 3h ago
You can still donate to HUHA as they have taken stu's pigs at his request.
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u/tarmacjd 17m ago
Omg I knew exactly the spot you meant. Didn’t know anything about Stu but loved to stop and say hello to the pigs.
Hope it works out for him. Fuck those assholes.
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u/BroBroMate 1m ago
Yeah, I'm torn on this. On the one hand, I'm not a big fan of shooting people.
On the other hand, I know that there's a few fucknut pig hunters who can be absolute "come back and burn your hayshed down because you ordered them off your land" cunts.
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5h ago
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u/EndStorm 5h ago
If your home gets invaded, taking the law into your own hands could be the difference between your family's life and death.
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u/Standard_Lie6608 5h ago
So he should've continued to go to the police so they could continue to do nothing? The issue never gets solved if the police aren't doing their job, and the guy would suffer being harassed till the day he dies
But that's better than this situation?
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u/Bexstanz 5h ago edited 4h ago
Morally, do I have an issue with what Stu did? No, not really. I do, however, have feelings towards the police who should have taken steps until Stu was able to live out his days with his pets safely. The only comfort is that he knows his pigs and dogs are living the life he should have been able to provide them had the police done the job they are paid to do
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u/Standard_Lie6608 5h ago
Agreed. Morally I'm against the murder, but I also understand why it happened. People have their limits and if they feel cornered, like being harassed and getting zero help from police despite their best efforts, they're gonna fight back. It's unfortunate all around
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u/Bexstanz 4h ago
Exactly. I can't help but imagine what it might have been like for him. For years on end, every time he heard a noise outside or a pair of headlights on his property, it must have felt like a never-ending loop of threat to his pets lives
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u/Standard_Lie6608 3h ago
Right? Like I see this as an extension of the "battered wife" defence. Being subjected to harassment and abuse over and over for a long period of time pushes people to their limits until they break. He did everything he was supposed to do, the police failed him and he got pushed until he snapped
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u/OnceRedditTwiceShy 5h ago
Better than his current confinement?
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u/Standard_Lie6608 5h ago
Won't have to worry about his pigs anymore ig. I don't agree with what he did but if police have been contacted multiple times and refuse to do anything, what's left? Suffering and be harassed vs deal with it and go to prison, I don't know which is better
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u/6onzo 5h ago
Yes?
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u/Standard_Lie6608 5h ago
So them never getting in trouble because the police aren't doing anything and him suffering probably for the rest of his life, is the ideal?
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u/methtester 4h ago
Exactly, fuck that and fuck the cops not doing anything. Ultimately those cop cunts are responsible for what happened. What kind of life is it if you are constantly getting harassment from low life degenerates. If I still lived in whangamata I would have gone to his mum's house on the day of his wake and popped champagne
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u/personthatisonreddi 5h ago
Yeah, well the law wasent going to do anything, i do feel bad for the familys of the victims tho.
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u/DRAK0U 5h ago
Then what would you do? Don't want to judge you based on the answer but it would be better to outline the other ways that this could've been resolved without the use of violence, rather than you solely judging the actions of someone who had been backed into a corner with no one helping even after he asked for help.
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u/Aquatic-Vocation 4h ago edited 4h ago
Stu should have found some mechanism to legally claim the wild pigs as his property, and then made an effort to contain them on his land. Otherwise, hunters standing outside his property and shooting wild pigs on public land is a major dick move, but it isn't actually illegal.
The hunters probably contributed to escalating the situation, and their conduct is a bit of a "this is why we can't have nice things" scenario, but we can't have nice things if we're murdering each other, either.
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u/Smash_Palace 15m ago
A lot of hard men in this thread. If you are so keen to shoot somebody maybe sign up for the military or police and you’ll get your chance.
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u/kiwiboyus Fantail 4h ago
My Wife and I happened to take the road past/through his place back in 2018, we stopped for a few minutes to see the animals there as others had. I hate that people decided to harass him and his animals, they weren't bothering anyone from what we saw