A choker hold was not self-defence, a judge told a man who appeared in the Dunedin District Court after causing spinal injuries to his victim during a camping trip.
Logan Carson (18), of Invercargill, was charged with injury in circumstances that would have been manslaughter if death had ensued.
However, Carson received a conditional discharge without conviction, after Judge Kevin Phillips took into account the circumstances of the offending and the effect a conviction would have on his future.
Carson was camping with his girlfriend, and his girlfriend's stepsister and her partner, the victim, at Dunback Domain on August 8. The victim and Carson had been celebrating the victim's birthday.
According to a police summary there was an argument, and the victim threatened Carson's girlfriend, and raised a closed fist at Carson.
Carson grabbed him, forced him to the ground, put his knee into the victim's back and placed his forearm across the victim's throat, and started to choke him. The victim lost consciousness and needed treatment for spinal injuries at Dunedin Hospital.
Defence counsel Ann Leonard said Carson was frightened of the victim, who had told him about serving time in prison for violent offending. Carson stopped as soon as the victim began to make choking noises, she said.
Judge Phillips said the violence was "of a kind and a nature that is concerning and alarming'' and noted the new strangulation legislation.
"You forced him to the ground, and up until then you could have argued it was self-defence,'' Judge Phillips said.
However, he could not understand how a choker hold could "ever be described as a hold you put on in self defence'', he said.
Rather, he believed Carson's actions stemmed from the fact he was drunk, and he was "concerned that [the victim] might get up and beat the hell out of you''.
He acknowledged the offending happened in a remote area, and that Carson's girlfriend and her stepsister were having "difficulties'' with the victim.
He accepted what had been said about the victim's background, and that it would be more difficult for Carson to get a job in the agricultural sector.
Judge Phillips found a conviction would be out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending, and said provided Carson paid $600 in emotional harm reparation to the victim by March 31 he would be discharged.
