A Dunedin man who bombarded his ex-partner with calls and messages has avoided a conviction so he can continue to assist the city’s immigrant community.
Ali Jamel Saleh Al-Qahwaji (58) appeared in the Dunedin District Court this week after pleading guilty to a charge of breaching a temporary protection order.
His counsel, Alan de Jager, argued his client, originally from Jordan, would be shunned by the local Muslim community if convicted.
Al-Qahwaji, who had set up a successful halal export business, had been “instrumental” in helping immigrants settle over several years in Dunedin, he said.
With a criminal record, that would end immediately, the court heard heard.
In May, a month after a temporary protection order had been made by the court, Al-Qahwaji attempted to contact his former partner regarding child-care arrangements.
The victim told him she was going to Wanaka for a few days.
That was not, in fact, her intended destination but she did not want the defendant to know her location, a police summary said.
Al-Qahwaji said he would follow her and interfere with anyone she was seeing.
He followed up the threat with 18 phone calls, a flurry of text messages and continued the barrage from early the following morning with Facebook messages.
“There was a high degree of tension regarding child-care issues and this was reflected in the tone of the messages,” police said.
Mr de Jager said his client’s reaction could be put down to his fear for his child.
“There was an emotional parental factor driving his offending,” he told the court.
Judge Peter Rollo accepted Al-Qahwaji’s high standing among the immigrant community, which was bolstered by a reference from Dr Najibullah Lafraie, a retired member of the University of Otago’s politics department.
The potential damage to the defendant’s reputation from a conviction would be a “significant consequence”, the judge said.
Despite police opposition to the discharge, he granted the application.
Al-Qahwaji, who begins a Stopping Violence course this week, offered $2000 to the victim for the emotional harm he caused but Judge Rollo said that was “excessive”. He ordered the defendant to pay $1000.
