Judge jails man for assault on Asian couple

A man who assaulted a Hong Kong couple in a frightening attack in Oamaru has been sent to prison.

Ryan Lane Atkinson, 27, unemployed, of Oamaru, was sentenced to four months' imprisonment for assault and using threatening language relating to the September 27 incident when he appeared before Judge Paul Kellar in the Oamaru District Court yesterday.

Judge Kellar said Atkinson taunted and abused the couple with racial slurs before following them across the street and lashing out, punching the man in the jaw and on the side of the head.

The woman tried to get in between the two men and pushed Atkinson away when he tried to punch her partner again.

Atkinson told the woman he wanted to punch her too and raised his fist towards her.

The man raised his arm to protect the woman and was punched again. The couple retreated to a nearby backpackers where police were called.

Counsel David Rusbatch said Atkinson had recently separated with this partner at the time of the incident and was intoxicated and venting his anger and frustration.

He denied it was a racially-motivated attack.

"He did not react well to that relationship coming to an end and turned to alcohol as some sort of consolation.

"He has come across the victims in town here and he has, through a combination of alcohol and frustration from the relationship coming to an end, looked at venting.

"It could have been anybody. It had nothing to do with the race of these particular victims, just who was in the proximity at the time.

"They bore the brunt of what occurred."

He said the assault was on the lower scale and was over in a relatively short period of time.

Judge Paul Kellar said the assault did not reflect well on Atkinson or the time the couple had spent in Oamaru.

"You've got to be held accountable for this."

"I don't accept they just happened to be an Asian couple that happened to be the victims of this offending."

Atkinson had previously admitted a dislike of Asian people, saying "everybody has ... problems with Asians", Judge Kellar said.

Source

Robber bashes elderly woman

An elderly Chinese woman with no English stood frozen in darkness as a man demanded cash from her family takeaway shop.

He had tampered with the powerbox before entering Ming Takeaways in Mangere - about 1am on Wednesday - so the 70-year-old could not see him and did not understand what he was saying.

When she did not comply he struck her round the head with a weapon, knocking her to the ground.

The woman called out to her 38-year-old son in Cantonese "the guy is hitting me" and he rushed out from the back of the shop. He found his mother lying on the ground with a deep gash in her forehead and a bleeding, swollen eye. She was taken to Middlemore Hospital with blurred vision and discharged that morning.

"It was very scary. Somebody came into the shop and used something to hit my mum, but because she couldn't see anything and couldn't speak English ..." the son said.

He and the chef chased the man down the street, but lost sight of him and called police.

The man did not get any cash.

Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Pizzini said police believed the man tampered with the shop's powerbox so it was dark when he entered the shop.

He warned business owners to beware of the new style of robbery.

"Our advice is for shop proprietors to check power boxes if accessible from public places and make sure they are secured by padlocks so this can't happen," said Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Pizzini.

The man sought by police is 18 to 20 years old, about 178cm tall, wearing a blue bandanna over his mouth, a baseball cap and a light-coloured hooded sweatshirt.

NZ Herald

Auckland Hong Kong Film Festival 2009

Action with a new edge at HK Film Festival

Resurgence is the buzz word in the Hong Kong film world today. The traditional action flicks on which the Hong Kong film industry built its strong reputation are still popular, but local moviegoers want new ideas and concepts.

This first Hong Kong Film Festival in New Zealand showcases four movies released last year and one in 2007. The films tell stories of prostitution, tough life in a New Territories town, kidnapping and crime, gang wars and a legend about the defeat of a warlord and rise of a people´s hero. They have all won awards in Hong Kong and at international film festivals.

In Cantonese with English subtitles, the five films selected by filmmaker Alex Lee of Asia NZ Film Foundation and DOCNZ, especially for the Hong Kong New Zealand Business Association, give filmgoers a taste of Hong Kong´s new talent.

The HK Film Festival at the Rialto Newmarket in Auckland, September 16 - 20. For Screening times & Ticket info Click Here

Hong Kong Film Festival 2009 Website