A Christchurch policeman wants the force to grant him diversion after he grabbed a man by the scruff of the neck because he had gone through his mobile phone contents.
Name suppression was lifted for Sergeant Craig Elliot Prior when he appeared in Christchurch District Court on Tuesday and admitted a charge of assault, the Christchurch Court News website reports.
The court was told that in November, Prior was an officer called to a domestic dispute and accidentally left his mobile phone behind.
The person at the house phoned in to say he had been through the phone, found it interesting, and photographed the contents.
The phone contained much private, privileged, and personal information, including photographs and details of his children, Prior's lawyer Jonathan Eaton said.
When police returned to the house, Prior reached through a gate and held the man by the scruff of the neck and asked about the phone and what photographs had been taken.
Police need to decide by April whether or not to grant Prior diversion.http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/16064860/chch-policeman-wants-diversion-for-assault/
He's pleaded guilty and asked for diversion. I know the country expects a great deal of the police and rightly so. It's less clear that they can not be expected to be reasonably protective of their families, or at least, as in this case, have the normal sensitivity toward feeling protective against anybody generally who might have raised things about Craig Elliot's family, but more specifically against somebody who essentially mocked the officer involved about private information found on his phone. If the photos and other sensitive material actually existed in the storage capacity of the phone then the person that spoke of them to Craig Elliot must have accessed them, following whether or not Craig then acted reasonably should have a test applied comparable to any husband, wife, mother or father looking out for the interests of their own. As the title says, I hope this man gets a fair go.
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