A serious assault on a police officer early last year was likely to bring a prison sentence "measured in years, not months", Judge Stephen O'Driscoll told a young man who was remanded in custody.
Jamie Trev Cooper-Siggleko (24), unemployed, was found guilty of injuring Constable Alana Kane with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm on February 6 last year. He had denied the allegation and an alternative charge of intentionally causing intentional injury to Const Kane.
His trial was held in the Invercargill District Court from late last week until Tuesday, when a jury found him guilty on the more serious charge.
Judge O'Driscoll remanded him in custody for sentence in Dunedin on August 28, but, on Cooper-Siggleko's instructions, counsel Brian Kilkelly applied for bail.
The judge refused the application, making it clear Cooper-Siggleko could be facing a long prison sentence.
The Crown case, argued by counsel Richard Smith, was that Cooper-Siggleko injured Const Kane intending to cause her serious harm.
It was "pure good luck that he didn't", Mr Smith told the jurors.
The incident happened during a bail check just before midnight on February 6, 2011. Another female officer, Const Kristyn Adamson, made the check and asked the accused for a passive breath test, as she believed he had been drinking alcohol in breach of his bail conditions. Cooper-Siggleko tried to persuade the officer not to arrest him after the test returned a positive result.
His brother was present with several other young people and started abusing Const Adamson, so she called Const Kane for assistance.
When Const Kane decided the arrest needed to be made quickly and asked the defendant to put his hands behind his back so she could handcuff him, he objected and Const Kane was knocked to the ground. She was then attacked by Cooper-Siggleko and punched repeatedly about the head by both brothers. She was, for a time, unconscious. Her injuries, as later detailed by a doctor, included a bleeding nose, damaged wrist and apparent loss of consciousness.
Cooper-Siggleko denied punching Const Kane.
The jury hearing the case deliberated for three hours on Tuesday afternoon before returning a verdict of guilty on the more serious charge.
