{"id":579552,"date":"2026-08-25T05:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T05:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579552\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T05:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T05:58:09","slug":"why-teens-charged-with-critically-injuring-manawatu-cop-likely-wont-be-named-or-sent-to-adult-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579552\/","title":{"rendered":"Why teens charged with critically injuring Manawat\u016b cop likely won\u2019t be named \u2013 or sent to adult court"},"content":{"rendered":"

He remains in the intensive care unit in a stable condition,<\/a> but on a ventilator. A Givealittle page<\/a> has been set up for him and his family.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of online commenters have called for the defendants \u2013 who are due to appear in the Youth Court on Thursday \u2013 to be charged as adults.<\/p>\n

\"CentralCentral District Commander Superintendent Dion Bennett said the officer who was critically injured was a young father.<\/p>\n

\u201cOld enough to be driving around in middle of the night causing trouble, then old enough to get big boys\u2019 punishment,\u201d one person said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese young ones who think it\u2019s fun to steal a car and injure anyone should not be protected because of their bloody age,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n

The Herald spoke to an expert and looked into the legislation to find out how likely the defendants would be to get dealt with as adults.<\/p>\n

Rehabilitation over punishment for youths better for society \u2013 law professor<\/p>\n

Police did not have any say in the decision to charge the teenagers in the Youth Court, Kris Gledhill, a professor of law at the Auckland University of Technology, noted.<\/p>\n

Jurisdiction is governed by the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, decided on by politicians rather than those enforcing the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cYouths are tried in the Youth Court unless it is murder or manslaughter \u2013 though 17-year-olds can be tried in the District Court for various other offences,\u201d Gledhill said in an emailed response.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police do not have a choice in the matter for those aged 14-15.\u201d<\/p>\n

While most people are familiar with the process in an adult court \u2013 charges are laid, defendants plead guilty or go to trial and are sentenced if guilty \u2013 Youth Court played out differently.<\/p>\n

Young people generally don\u2019t plead guilty or not guilty to charges. Instead, they deny or admit them, or have them proven and go through \u201cfamily group conferences\u201d, a meeting including the young person, their family, the victim, police and other relevant professionals.<\/p>\n

The Youth Court is required to consider any decision or recommendations produced by the conference.<\/p>\n

\"KrisKris Gledhill, a law professor at Auckland University of Technology, said it was not up to police to decide whether the teens were dealt with as adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cYouth Courts follow different processes that try to work out why young people have got into trouble and also to work out what is best to try to solve those problems,\u201d Gledhill said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis rests on evidence that punitive approaches are less successful in solving future criminal activities than taking steps to deal with the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outcomes in the Youth Court are also different to the adult courts and while some may be similar to a sentencing, they are not referred to as such.<\/p>\n

In serious cases, youths who have admitted their charges or had them proven can be sent to a youth detention residence.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor young people, the brain science makes clear that they are not mini-adults and that their brains are developing,\u201d Gledhill said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to work out how best to stop them offending is going to be better for society in the long run. We have tried other methods and they have been shown to be less effective.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has been the basis for our youth justice system for many decades now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can the youths in this case be dealt with in the adult court?<\/p>\n

Based on the charges that have been laid, the legislation does not allow the younger teen, who is aged 14, to be transferred to the District Court.<\/p>\n

The act allows a young person to be transferred to a higher jurisdiction for sentence or decision if they are 15 or older, or if they are 14 and facing a serious charge with a maximum penalty of at least 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Neither defendant currently faces a charge meeting this threshold. The court may make an order to transfer the 15-year-old defendant and alleged driver despite this obstacle, but it is unlikely.<\/p>\n

The judge must consider a host of factors when making such an order, including the nature of the offending, the defendant\u2019s personal history and characteristics, the impact on the victim and the risk the defendant poses to others.<\/p>\n

The case could also be transferred to the High Court if the officer died and police decided to lay a manslaughter charge.<\/p>\n

That might not happen, though. Other charging options included reckless or dangerous driving causing death.<\/p>\n

Will the defendants ever be named?<\/p>\n

The younger teen will not be named, as he is too young to be transferred to the adult courts, and legislation strictly forbids naming defendants in the Youth Court.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the older teen will keep his name suppressed as long as he remains in the youth jurisdiction \u2013 but even if he were to be transferred to an adult court, it was not a given that he would be named.<\/p>\n

In such a case, the regular opportunities to apply for name suppression come into play. A judge must consider whether publication of the defendant\u2019s name would cause adverse effects, such as extreme hardship.<\/p>\n

A defence lawyer could argue that the youth\u2019s age and rehabilitation prospects would weigh more strongly in favour of suppression than for an adult defendant.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe police officers were struck on Kairanga Bunnythorpe Rd, just outside Palmerston North, early on Saturday morning. Image \/ Google Maps<\/p>\n

It is not unheard of for youths to be named for offending after being transferred to an adult court.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Wellington teenager Mason Moody lost name suppression for an incident in which he tried to murder his ex-girlfriend\u2019s new boyfriend<\/a> with a machete.<\/p>\n

He was 17 by the time he lost suppression, with High Court Justice Christine Grice saying publication of his name would cause him \u201cembarrassment\u201d, but that this was an ordinary consequence of the serious offending he had committed.<\/p>\n

Later that year, a teen offender with antisocial personality disorder \u2013 known as sociopathy \u2013 was transferred to the adult court<\/a> after issues with his compliance with the Youth Court.<\/p>\n

Noah Peter Matthews was jailed for a rape he committed against another teenager when he was 16.<\/p>\n

Judge John Walker ultimately declined permanent suppression for Matthews in the District Court, noting the issue of whether he should receive it was closely related to \u201cyouth justice principles\u201d and \u201cthe effect on the defendant\u2019s rehabilitation and reintegration into the community, taking into account his particular circumstances, amounts to extreme hardship\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the existing barriers to treatment and Matthews\u2019 characteristics suggested publication of his name would make little, if any, difference to rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

Melissa Nightingale<\/a> is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He remains in the intensive care unit in a stable condition, but on a ventilator. A Givealittle page…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21653,74,5195,1559,13239,22970,1349,12939,13504,19552,15037,305,671,10933,6793,6148,120,10509,10136,111,43,139,69,10932,1642,691,675,13743,47066,672,61,4276,102,14443],"class_list":["post-579552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-adult","tag-after","tag-be","tag-called","tag-charged","tag-cop","tag-court","tag-critically","tag-critics","tag-driver","tag-fleeing","tag-have","tag-incident","tag-injured","tag-injuring","tag-justice","tag-likely","tag-manawat","tag-named","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-officer","tag-online","tag-or","tag-police","tag-sent","tag-teenagers","tag-teens","tag-to","tag-why","tag-with","tag-wont"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579552","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=579552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}