There were whispered exclamations of \u201cyes\u201d as the jury foreman said \u201cguilty\u201d to each of the six charges, and people clapped when Lologa\u2019s name suppression was lifted.<\/p>\n
Tears were shed throughout the process, which lasted about 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
Michael Wahrlich\u2019s sister, Margaret Wahrlich, sat in the courtroom each day of the five-week trial, clasping a gold-framed picture of her brother.<\/p>\n
He was known affectionately by Wellingtonians as \u201cMike the Juggler\u201d, a treasured part of the community who tossed tennis balls on the capital\u2019s streets for three decades.<\/p>\n
Wahrlich made the trip up from Christchurch to watch proceedings not just for herself and her brother, but for Wellington, she said.<\/p>\n
Margaret Wahrlich holds a picture of her brother, Michael Wahrlich. Photo \/ RNZ<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry that you have lost such a darling person in Wellington, who meant so much to you all,\u201d his sister said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he\u2019ll be watching over us, juggling still. Mike the Juggler, my brother, never forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul O\u2019Sullivan, Peter O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s older brother, said he was happy with the result and now had faith in the justice system.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery emotional, but real pleased to come and be involved … just pleased it\u2019s sort of over now, and [to] have a bit of closure.\u201d<\/p>\n
He described his brother as a \u201cfree spirit\u201d.<\/p>\n
Peter O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s niece, Ruby O\u2019Sullivan, added: \u201cIt was the right answer, it couldn\u2019t have been anything but … he can\u2019t hurt anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
The families thanked the police for their work on the investigation, as well as the firefighters and former Loafers Lodge residents who gave harrowing testimonies about the deadly blaze.<\/p>\n
They gave police officers a bright bouquet of flowers before leaving the court.<\/p>\n
Alan Potter, a former resident, was in tears as he told RNZ he welcomed the verdict.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel for all the people who are here today connected to the residents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew Mike the Juggler … I knew Liam Hockings very well, we used to watch TV together and things like that. They were all harmless people, they weren\u2019t criminals, they weren\u2019t bad people … we\u2019ve got justice today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Extremely challenging\u2019 investigation – police<\/p>\n
Speaking outside the High Court in Wellington, Detective Senior Sergeant Tim Leitch said it had been an \u201cextremely challenging and difficult investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n
His team worked relentlessly seeking answers for Loafers Lodge residents, victims\u2019 families, and the public, he said.<\/p>\n
That included poring over hundreds of hours of CCTV footage, interviewing 90 residents, and analysing the layout of the lodge and what happened that night.<\/p>\n
In CCTV footage shown to the court, a man sets an object on fire and places it under a couch in the level three lounge. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n
Leitch acknowledged the victims\u2019 families and former residents of the hostel.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the trial we heard about the incredible bravery and courage of many of them, who assisted in the initial firefighting efforts and helped many residents to safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Firefighters who fought the blaze and rescued trapped residents did \u201call that was humanly possible to save the men … they couldn\u2019t have done anything more\u201d.<\/p>\n
Leitch said he was emotional hearing the verdict.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just pleased that we got the result that we were looking for, and I know that it\u2019s given some comfort to the family that we\u2019ve held somebody to account for the death of the men.\u201d<\/p>\n
-RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were whispered exclamations of \u201cyes\u201d as the jury foreman said \u201cguilty\u201d to each of the six charges,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2084,5988,3368,42,78,2083,2078,173,43,39429,61,40,38,41,39,54,21146],"class_list":["post-44514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crimp","tag-families","tag-guilty","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-lauren","tag-loafers","tag-lodge","tag-news","tag-react","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trial","tag-verdict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}