{"id":504408,"date":"2026-07-01T11:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T11:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/504408\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T11:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T11:34:14","slug":"former-radio-shock-jock-iain-stables-sentenced-for-assaulting-ex-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/504408\/","title":{"rendered":"Former radio shock jock Iain Stables sentenced for assaulting ex-partner"},"content":{"rendered":"

One night in November 2024, Stables and his partner were arguing in the bedroom of their home in South Auckland.<\/p>\n

The summary of facts says the victim made a comment that \u201cenraged\u201d her partner and he began hitting her around the head, pulling her hair, and yelling.<\/p>\n

The lights were out and the room was dark.<\/p>\n

He continued striking her head and when she went to move away, he shoved her hard, causing her to fall down, the summary said.<\/p>\n

Stables stood over his victim and slapped her several more times.<\/p>\n

She attempted to get up and away, but he punched her in the chest, causing her again to fall.<\/p>\n

Hearing that the victim was winded and struggling to breathe, Stables stopped his attack.<\/p>\n

The woman was left with a large lump on the side of her head and bruising to her eye, chest and neck.<\/p>\n

Punished for pranks<\/p>\n

Stables was a radio personality in the 90s and 2000s, drumming up headlines and routinely landing in court for his shock jock antics<\/a> during stints with The Edge and ZM.<\/p>\n

In 2000, he was convicted and fined $1100 for impersonating an Interpol detective during a prank call.<\/p>\n

In the call he told Los Angeles airport authorities that then-co-workers Jason Reeves, JJ Feeney and Clarke Gayford were smuggling kiwi eggs in their \u201crear cavities\u201d. <\/p>\n

The trio was detained for hours upon arrival in the United States and searched.<\/p>\n

He also ended up in court for stunts that included throwing a bucket of water on anti-vivisection protesters and dropping his pants after persuading a concert-goer to participate in his \u201ckiss my arse for a backstage pass\u201d contest.<\/p>\n

Police investigated him again in 2002<\/a> after he called another station pretending to be a traffic safety manager, suggesting motorists pass the time by \u201cplaying with themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

Two years later, about 800 people had to be evacuated<\/a> from three Northland beaches after Stables reported shark sightings and a sewage spill to Surf Lifesaving.<\/p>\n

\"NotoriousNotorious prankster Iain Stables worked as a radio DJ for The Edge and ZM. Photo \/ Brett Phibbs<\/p>\n

\u2018I have lost everything\u2019<\/p>\n

He was set to join Radio Hauraki<\/a> in 2010 but the radio station ended the contract<\/a> before he went on air after he was involved in a fight with a Jetstar employee<\/a> upon arriving late.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said his airline was a f***ing loser and I called him a f***ing loser,\u201d Stables told the Herald at the time, explaining that he suffered a concussion in the fracas.<\/p>\n

The employee was charged with assault, while Stables faced a charge of disorderly behaviour likely to incite violence. <\/p>\n

However, the employee was later found not guilty<\/a> after the court heard Stables had thrown a portable radio at him<\/a> and a witness said Stables called him a \u201cblack motherf***er\u201d. <\/p>\n

Police subsequently dropped the charge against Stables<\/a>. The Jetstar employee returned to his job but Stables\u2019 Radio Hauraki offer was never revived.<\/p>\n

He was also found guilty by a jury in 2012 of punching the brother of his ex-girlfriend during a property dispute a year earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have nothing left,\u201d he said during the trial<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have lost my career, I have lost everything … what have I got to gain? I have already been screwed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was later sentenced to four months\u2019 community detention, for what the judge described as a \u201cviolent tantrum\u201d, and for an unrelated incident in which he punched an advertiser<\/a> who was in arrears to a radio station where Stables was at that time volunteering.<\/p>\n

Mental health issues and a brain injury<\/p>\n

In court this week, Stables\u2019 lawyer Peter Tomlinson said his client used to be a \u201crather flamboyant\u201d radio announcer in the mid-90s.<\/p>\n

Tomlinson said at the time of the 2024 assault, however, Stables was having mental health issues and suffering from a traumatic brain injury.<\/p>\n

In a Corrections report before the court, Stables told a probation officer he had difficulty remembering what happened the night of the offending but took full responsibility.<\/p>\n

He felt what he had done had destroyed his family, the report said.<\/p>\n

Since his brain injury, Stables said things had changed and he found it difficult to control his emotions.<\/p>\n

There was no victim impact statement from the victim, Judge Lynn Hughes said, but the woman had attended a restorative justice conference with her former partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou both gained something out of being able to meet in that forum,\u201d Judge Hughes said.<\/p>\n

Stables had been able to apologise and ask for forgiveness, while the victim had accepted his apology and told the man how the assault had impacted her, the judge said.<\/p>\n

The sentence<\/p>\n

Judge Hughes said the victim was Stables\u2019 partner and therefore should have felt safe in her own home.<\/p>\n

She lessened his sentence for his guilty plea, mental health issues, brain injury and the fact that he had completed a stopping violence course last year.<\/p>\n

She also took into account the restorative justice meeting, landing at a 50% discount for his sentence.<\/p>\n

Stables was sentenced to 18 months\u2019 intensive supervision and ordered to attend assessments for any treatment, counselling and non-violence programmes to the satisfaction of his probation officer.<\/p>\n

The judge noted that while Stables had previous convictions for violence, including family violence, there were also periods where he didn\u2019t come before the court for a \u201clengthy period of time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Obviously, the judge said, within those periods of life things were going much better for him, the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep making good progress and I won\u2019t see you here in future,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish you the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She\u2019s currently based in Auckland covering justice related stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One night in November 2024, Stables and his partner were arguing in the bedroom of their home in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85741,51247,2245,59502,209531,2082,2740,71,138233,117843,33450,116292,2190,111,43,139,69,6029,189569,4965,5161,13744,7811,140944],"class_list":["post-504408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2000s","tag-assaulting","tag-early","tag-expartner","tag-faded","tag-for","tag-former","tag-from","tag-iain","tag-jock","tag-known","tag-limelight","tag-long","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-once","tag-pranks","tag-radio","tag-sentenced","tag-shock","tag-since","tag-stables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504408","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=504408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}