20 Nov 2009

Friday's newspaper headlines

10:16 am on 20 November 2009

Teen attacker had earlier crime spree; motorcycle protesters threaten to block shopping mall; students paid to protest at bus lanes in Wellington mall.

NZ Herald

A teenager who brutally attacked 85-year-old war veteran Eric Brady had days earlier held a knife to the stomach of a Queen's Service Medal holder and stolen his car. Maurangi Pere has been sentenced to eight years and 10 months in prison.

A south Auckland mother who beat her 10-year-old child up to 15 times with a piece of hosepipe for wagging school has been sentenced to 15 months in jail, the New Zealand Herald reports.

Motorcycle protesters are threatening to block Auckland shopping mall car parks unless the Government abandons proposed accident compensation levy rises.

Dominion Post

Armed police found a naked man tipping a P-pipe and other items down a sink during a raid of his million-dollar Wellington home. Police have so far arrested 55 people and seized hundreds of thousands of dollars during Operation Cobra.

Students are being paid to protest against Manners Mall being ripped up for bus lanes. The Dominion Post says the 'rent a crowd' students will be paid $25 an hour for the protest next month.

The Press

Alcohol-induced violence and drug-related crime will be targeted in Christchurch as thousands of Kiwi police officers act in unison with Australian forces next month. Police forces across Australasia will stage a blitz on what they say is a trans-Tasman problem - booze-fuelled street crime.

Otago Daily Times

The paper reports Robin Sew Hoy has been sentenced to 10 months' home detention and ordered to repay $325,000 for his role in the Swann fraud.

A Queenstown publican says he wants some "honesty and transparency" about how supermarkets price their alcohol promotions, saying cheap beer is one of the main causes of the resort's ongoing problem of public intoxication.