{"id":635933,"date":"2026-10-20T04:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T04:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/635933\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T04:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T04:28:10","slug":"last-of-six-charged-over-te-atatu-drag-event-protest-pleads-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/635933\/","title":{"rendered":"Last of six charged over Te Atat\u016b drag event protest pleads guilty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The last of six people facing charges after protesters stormed a children\u2019s event at a West Auckland libraryy has pleaded guilty \u2013 just as a jury was to be sworn-in for his trial.<\/p>\n<p>Phineas Mann, 45, was due to stand trial at the Auckland District Court today on a charge of injuring with intent.<\/p>\n<p>Before a jury could be empanelled however, Mann\u2019s lawyer Todd Simmons told the court he&#8217;d had discussions with the Crown and his client would plead guilty to a lesser charge of male assaults female.<\/p>\n<p>Five other defendants from the incident had also pleaded guilty in recent days. Five were seeking to be discharged without conviction, at hearings set down for early next year.<\/p>\n<p>The sixth was convicted and ordered to pay a fine. <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2025\/02\/16\/police-investigate-assault-allegations-at-destiny-church-pride-protest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">charges stemmed from February 15 last year<\/a>, when a group linked to Destiny Church and its Man Up movement went into the Te Atat\u016b Community Centre, where drag king Hugo Grrrl was hosting a science show for children.<\/p>\n<p>Around 30 children and adults were barricaded inside.<\/p>\n<p>Police <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2025\/03\/18\/accused-in-court-over-destiny-church-linked-pride-protest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">charged seven people<\/a> with a range of assault offences. A charge against a 19-year-old woman was later withdrawn.<\/p>\n<p>Protest &#8216;crossed the line&#8217; \u2013 police<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">A mother has spoken to 1News of her daughter&#8217;s horror at seeing her dodgeball teammate&#8217;s &#8220;shoved, pushed and punched&#8221; at the Te Atat\u016b Community Centre on Saturday.  (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n<p>When police announced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2025\/03\/12\/four-charged-with-assault-over-destiny-church-linked-pride-protest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the first arrests in March last year<\/a>, Waitemat\u0101 district commander Superintendent Naila Hassan said people working at and attending the venue had been \u201csubjected to violence and intimidation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a place for peaceful and lawful protest in this country, but this event crossed the line, and this investigation makes it very clear that this will not be tolerated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The day after the protest, Inspector Simon Walker said the group\u2019s actions had caused \u201cconsiderable distress and concern\u201d among children, library staff and visitors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFreedom of speech and the right to protest are fundamental principles of a free and democratic society under the rule of law, but nobody, especially children, should ever be made to feel unsafe,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the Freedoms &amp; Rights Coalition, which Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki founded, told 1News in March last year that the coalition, not Destiny Church, had organised the protest.<\/p>\n<p>The spokesperson also claimed members of the rainbow community had used force first, alleging a minor in the group\u2019s haka team had been punched in the face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last of six people facing charges after protesters stormed a children\u2019s event at a West Auckland libraryy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,67,42,64776,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-635933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-auckland","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-lgbttqia","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635933","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=635933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}