Items confiscated from people attending court included knuckledusters and knives. Photo / Mike Dinsdale
Multiple sets of knuckledusters, knives and drug pipes were among items confiscated from visitors passing through security screening at Northland courts last year.
Cannabis and batons were also picked up by security officers on entry, according to information released to the Northern Advocate under the Official Information Act (OIA).
Items – usually small knives and scissors – are most often taken into temporary custody and returned to the person as they leave.
“If the item is deemed to be a prohibited offensive weapon, the item will be seized by a CSO (Court Security Officer) and the person detained. The matter is then handed over to the police,” Tina Wakefield, deputy secretary of corporate and digital services at the Ministry of Justice, said in the OIA response.
At the Whangārei Courthouse, items were taken into custody on seven different occasions.
Knuckledusters were confiscated on two separate occasions in March, and drugs and/or drug paraphernalia three times. “Tools for breaking into property and vehicles” were also taken off a visitor in May.
A telescopic baton was also confiscated in July, and in June a baton and a large pocket knife were found.
Cannabis was confiscated at the Kaikohe District Court three times. Two knuckledusters were found on a visitor in October, and a “flip pocket knife” in February 2022.
Large knives and knuckledusters were found during security screenings at Northland’s courts. Photo / Mike Dinsdale
There were just two confiscations at Kaitāia District Court during the year – one was a switchblade, and the other a bag containing seeds likely to be cannabis.
There was no record of firearms or ammunition being confiscated in Northland’s courts during 2022.
Hundreds of items were also taken into temporary custody at the region’s courts, including 228 at Whangārei. These included objects classified as ‘other’, which included knitting needles, forks and umbrellas.
Whangārei lawyer Arthur Fairley said he could only think of two instances from many years ago where people had taken weapons into court, including one where someone threw a substance at a judge, claiming it was acid when it was actually water. The other was when a judge was stabbed in an Auckland court in 1990.
Fairley said he had not personally been involved in any incidents, and it was very difficult to get any weapons through with security screening now in place.
“And on top of that, there’s CCTV throughout the court building,” he added.
Fairley said people would always attempt to bring in prohibited items.
“They’re human – human beings will always try things. Whether they succeed is a different matter altogether,” he said.
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