Broadcaster Iain Stables has been sentenced to community
detention for assaulting a hotel owner who owed his radio
station money and for a "violent tantrum" in which he punched
his ex-partner's brother.
The former radio shock jock was charged after a incident in
March 2011 at the flat he shared with his then partner,
Kimberley O'Hagan, at the front of her parents' Wellington
property.
Stables flew into a rage after Ms O'Hagan's mother found
damage at the flat and served him with an eviction notice.
A Wellington District Court jury last year found Stables not
guilty of assaulting Ms O'Hagan's parents, Marianne and
Robert O'Hagan, but found him guilty of punching her brother,
Martin O'Hagan.
He also pleaded guilty to intentional damage of a car, which
he repeatedly rammed with his four-wheel drive vehicle, and a
trellis gate and a chair.
While awaiting sentencing on those charges, Stables pleaded
guilty to assault and theft relating to another incident in
which he demanded money from the owner of a Raetihi hotel.
The hotel had advertised with a local radio station which
Stables was volunteering for, but had not paid its bill.
Stables and two other station employees went to the hotel to
demand payment in December 2011.
When the woman at reception said they could not pay, her
63-year-old husband stepped in.
Stables and another man led the owner into a dining room and
punched him, causing him to fall. They continued to punch him
in the head and chest.
The owner suffered cuts to his mouth and forehead, a black
eye and a cracked tooth.
Stables and the other man then took a plasma screen
television, a Freeview decoder and a stereo system but left
them outside the hotel, where they waited for police to
arrive and arrest them.
Judge Denys Barry handed Stables identical concurrent
sentences of four months of community detention and 50 hours
of community service for each matter when he appeared in
Wellington District Court this morning (Tue).
He was also ordered to pay $619 in reparation to the O'Hagans
for the "violent tantrum" in which he damaged the car.
Judge Barry also ordered Stables to undertake a further 40
hours of community work for $3916.51 in outstanding fines,
which related to previous motor vehicle offences,
Stables earlier faced a charge of disorderly behaviour in
July 2011 in relation to an incident at Auckland Airport.
The charge was dropped after the other person involved -
Jetstar contract worker Patrick Joseph Ulberg - was found not
guilty of assault.
- Matthew Backhouse of APNZ
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