Newstalk ZB
After a series of burnouts, toots and taunts, a carload of young people turned up to a farmer’s property for a fourth time, but this time he surprised them with his tractor. Durk De Boer raised its bucket up towards the bonnet of the bright yellow Toyota 4WD before getting off and marching angrily up to them, armed with a metal pole. What followed next was disputed in court – the teen driver says he was assaulted and only there to “look at the lasers”, while the farmer says he was simply defending his property. But a judge ruled in De Boer’s favour, saying the teens told untruths and were deliberately being a nuisance that night. “They were enticing a reaction, they wanted a reaction and they got a reaction,” Judge Philip Crayton said when reading out his reserved decision recently. He ruled that the reaction wasn’t an assault but reasonable force to stop the teens from trespassing on his Waikato property on the night of November 2, 2023. “This was not about lasers, this was about the complainant and his friends making nuisances out of themselves, no doubt having what they viewed as fun. “It started with burnouts and noise, and it seems pretty clearly shown that it was intended to wind up a local resident, that’s why they returned a short time later. “I do accept that the defendant was plainly, and understandably, very angry. “The defendant went to ensure that the [complainant] and his friends stopped trespassing on his property, and of course, he was entitled to use reasonable force to prevent trespass.” The judge said he was “absolutely satisfied that any threat, or minor striking of the victim’s vehicle, fell firmly within reasonable force”. ‘What the f***’, ‘go back, go back’ Delivering his reserved decision recently, Judge Crayton said police alleged that the complainant and three friends drove up Kay Rd, southeast of Te Awamutu, in his Hyundai Getz, to “look at some lasers in the night sky”. However, after realising the road was a dead end, they turned around but then claimed they were chased by a car. As they got to the end of Kay Rd, the vehicle following them tried to “T-bone them”. The complainants then said one hour later, they returned to Kay Rd, now driving a yellow Toyota Surf owned by his father, having ditched the Hyundai Getz “for safety” reasons. In their evidence, that was because they were going to look for the person who had chased them, to apologise and assuage any “bad blood”. However, in their short journey up Kay Rd, they realised they didn’t know which property to go to and it happened, “completely by chance”, that they pulled into the driveway of De Boer, the judge said. It was then that the complainant claimed he was struck by a tractor “several times”. He then claimed their vehicle was driven backwards, striking De Boer’s son’s vehicle, which was parked behind them in the driveway. De Boer then got out of his vehicle with a metal pole and tried to strike the complainant through the window “with force”. “Fortunately, we are not left to rely on the evidence of the victim and the others because, bluntly, each witness ... took refuge in ‘I can’t remember it was two years ago’,” the judge said, recalling the evidence. “That, of course, provided a significant impediment when counsel sought to test the consistency of their evidence.” Te Awamutu farmer Durk De Boer was found not guilty of assaulting a local boy racer with a weapon after a confrontation at his property on Kay Rd on the night of November 2, 2023. Photo / Belinda Feek That was because there were several videos from that night. Two were provided by the occupants inside the complainant’s car. The first showed a tractor, being driven by De Boer, pulling in front of them and some “minor contact” with the vehicle. De Boer lifted the tractor’s bucket and pointed it towards the com...
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