Christchurch District Court<\/a> for sentencing on charges of unlawfully carrying and possessing a firearm, intentional damage, receiving and driving while disqualified.<\/p>\nJudge Raoul Neave said Brooking had a long history of involvement with the justice system.<\/p>\n
Brooking had previously caused thousands of dollars\u2019 worth of damage at two Canterbury prisons.<\/p>\n
In 2020, he climbed onto the roof of Rolleston Prison and refused to return to his cell, causing more than $30,000 damage by tearing up roofing iron, smashing windows and destroying security cameras.<\/p>\n
Two months later, after being transferred to Christchurch Men\u2019s Prison, he took part in a riot involving four other inmates, during which furniture, fixtures and fittings were damaged.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Brooking failed in a High Court bid to reduce a two-year prison sentence imposed for threatening to kill, intentional damage, attempting to pervert the course of justice, breaching bail, receiving and dangerous driving.<\/p>\n
At this week\u2019s sentencing, police sought a Firearms Prohibition Order, arguing Brooking was a gang member who met the threshold for the restriction.<\/p>\n
The order would have banned him from possessing or accessing firearms, ammunition and related items.<\/p>\n
Judge Neave declined the application, saying he had seen no evidence to support it.<\/p>\n
Addressing Brooking directly, the judge said he still had some growing up to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a degree of insight on your part which is positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d imagine you probably have potential.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge noted Brooking had left school at 13 and that a comprehensive assessment revealed a history of drug and alcohol abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like you have an addictive personality. Gambling is part of the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Neave said Brooking\u2019s upbringing had involved significant exposure to the justice system and had caused substantial trauma.<\/p>\n
He sentenced Brooking to 21 months\u2019 imprisonment, disqualified him from driving for 12 months and ordered him to pay reparation for the damage caused to the road.<\/p>\n
After sentencing, an NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi spokesperson said they hoped the sentence would deter others from similar behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cPainting public roads with unapproved and non-compliant road markings puts people\u2019s lives at risk, particularly when those markings encourage pedestrians to cross a busy road where drivers are not expecting to encounter a crossing point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe removal of illegal road markings is also costly and time-consuming, requiring the closure of the road and inconveniencing everyone who uses it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamat\u0101. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Around the same time, he was seen as a passenger in a vehicle while tape was being wrapped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1558,257167,9525,48054,115961,2837,37483,679,10116,296,2514,27343,79695,3958,20558,174300,3120,111,43,139,69,20421,3074,33551,13910,39992,52298,37400,63502,20927,20928,1240,11729,2951,1299],"class_list":["post-517986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-been","tag-brooking","tag-caught","tag-crossing","tag-destructive","tag-during","tag-fake","tag-forced","tag-incidents","tag-into","tag-island","tag-jails","tag-josiah","tag-judge","tag-kept","tag-lockdowns","tag-main","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-painted","tag-painting","tag-pedestrian","tag-previously","tag-prisons","tag-riot","tag-rooftop","tag-route","tag-sawnoff","tag-shotgun","tag-south","tag-timaru","tag-town","tag-who"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517986","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=517986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}