The lawyer for the former boss of the failed finance company Bridgecorp has urged a judge to ignore negative media coverage of his client.
Rod Petricevic and two other former directors are facing criminal charges at the High Court in Auckland following the collapse of the finance company in 2007 owing more than $450 million.
His lawyer, Charles Cato, urged the judge deciding the outcome of the trial to disregard publicity of the case, which he said has been massively adverse.
He said, in his summing up, that there had not been a single skerrick of proper coverage of the defence case.
Mr Cato said he himself had been chased by reporters "up hill and down dale and all over the place".
He said judges were only human and asked Justice Venning to steel himself against being influenced by the reporting.
