A Christchurch District Court jury has rejected a man's claim he was the victim of an all-night kidnapping and bashing incident.
The accused, who has name suppression, was found not guilty on seven charges after 16 hours' deliberation. Two of the verdicts were reached by majority, the Christchurch Court News website reported. The jury was hung on a further three charges.
The trial started before Judge Michael Crosbie last Monday, and the jury heard the complainant's evidence of how the 30-year-old accused threatened and intimidated him and subjected him to an all-night beating with punches and weapons, ending with a stabbing in the leg with a knife.
The accused later gave evidence himself, saying that he found out in the course of a drive around Christchurch that the alleged victim was dealing in drugs. He denied bashing him and said the complainant stabbed himself during the struggle that took place in the car when the complainant tried to rob the accused of cash.
The jury found the accused not guilty, by a majority, on charges of threatening to kill and attempting to pervert the course of justice by telling the complainant to lie about the stabbing.
It found him not guilty of assaults using nunchukka martial arts weapons, a fire extinguisher, a knife, and a chair, and assaulting him with intent to injure.
It could not reach verdicts on charges of kidnapping the 33-year-old man, repeatedly punching him and stabbing him.
The remaining charges were remanded to a pre-trial conference on July 1 for the crown to make a decision on whether to continue.
NZPA