On December 29 last year, Constables Christopher Pritchard and Rory Chapman attended a reported domestic dispute in Timaru. Despite being told that other police had already attended and resolved the matter, they broke into the house and searched it. When the inhabitants of the house, who were showering after returning from the beach, told them to leave, they pepper-sprayed and tasered one of them. Then, to add insult to injury, they prosecuted him for assaulting them.
Today, that case was thrown out by a judge, who found that the police's taser-cam evidence contradicted their claims, and that they had clearly lied. Which invites the question: will these officers be prosecuted for perjury, trespass and assault? And if not, why not?
