'seal basher' murderer Jamaal Large loses appeal | Stuff.co.nz
A High Court judge has turned down an application to throw out
charges against a man accused of bashing 23 seals to death near Kaikoura
in 2010,
but the charges could still be dismissed.
Jemaal Peter Roy Large, 37, of
Wairau Valley is charged with
wilfully ill-treating the 23 seals by
clubbing them to death with a
galvanised steel pipe at Ohau Pt on November 26, 2010.
In August, Blenheim District Court judge Tony Zohrab turned down an
appeal (
Hooray Judge Zohrab ) by Large to have the charges against him thrown out on the
grounds that he was legally hunting the seals. Large appealed to the
High Court for a judicial review of the judge's decision, applying again
to have the charges dismissed.
However, in a decision obtained by the Marlborough Express
yesterday, Justice Joseph Williams dismissed the application saying he
could not decide if Large was hunting or not and a judge would have to
hear the Crown's case to decide whether the charge was valid.
In the decision made last month, Justice Williams said according to
the law hunting included the pursuit of the hunted animal and it was not
clear if Large's actions could be described as a pursuit "requiring
skills ordinarily associated with hunting".
Twenty-three seals, including eight newborn pups, have been found clubbed to death on the Kaikoura coast.
The
bashed murdered seals were found on Wednesday by Department of Conservation
contractors at the Ohau Point seal colony, about 22km north of Kaikoura
township.
Some of the pups killed were just a few days old. The dead seals also
included 13 females and two bulls. Other live seals had injuries
suggesting they had also been struck, the Department of Conservation
(DoC) said.
New Zealand fur seals are protected by law and it is an offence to kill or harm them.
BASTARD!