A Dunedin man who harassed his neighbours before asking strangers for kisses, has been locked up. Djani Christopher Brown McNeill, 26, appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after earlier admitting five charges of assault, criminal harassment, drink-driving and theft. The court heard that about 7.30pm on November 27, the defendant climbed on to a tree stump and peered into the home of one of his Ōtākou neighbours. McNeill had already been served with a criminal harassment notice and trespass order in relation to the neighbour. People from other nearby properties and that neighbour and came out to speak to the defendant. McNeill shoved one of them in the chest before throwing multiple punches. He noticed another victim filming him, knocked the phone out of their hand and threw it into the bushes. The defendant then shoved the third neighbour in the chest and eventually drove off. About 8.30pm, McNeill had made it to Dunedin and parked his car next to a stranger’s vehicle. He got out, approached the people inside and asked them for kisses and hugs, saying he was “going to prison soon”, a police summary said. He grabbed one woman around her legs and refused to let go. McNeill talked about his penis size and wanting the woman to go back to his car with him. Police located the defendant outside his vehicle on John Wilson Drive, and testing procedures returned a breath-alcohol level of 758mcg — about three times the legal limit. Earlier that month on November 11, McNeill arrived at a woman’s address and an argument broke out. He pushed the woman, causing her to fall into a corner of a bedroom wall, leaving her with a large swollen bump on her forehead. Yesterday, counsel Meg Scally acknowledged the offending “clearly had a significant impact on the victims” and said her client was sorry to them. The defendant was intoxicated at the time and alcohol use was a problem for him, she said. “He’s really embarrassed . . . if you met him sober it’s a different person to the person you’d meet after he’d been consuming alcohol,” Ms Scally said. “He knows he needs to put the work in because if he doesn’t he’s just going to end up at square one again.” Judge Hermann Retzlaff highlighted the victims had “ongoing fears” about seeing the defendant again. He acknowledged McNeill’s background featured deprivation, disadvantages and trauma. Judge Retzlaff sentenced the defendant to 16-and-a-half months’ imprisonment and disqualified him from driving for six months. Due to the time McNeill spent in custody on remand, he would likely be released immediately. felicity.dear@odt.co.nz
