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Noble guilty of one charge
04 December 2004

Highway 61 gang member Dean Noble has escaped a charge of conspiracy to murder but was found guilty by a jury last night on a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

A co-accused, nightclub operator James Alan Samson, 30, was found guilty on charges of attempting to dissuade a witness by bribery, and attempting to pervert the course of justice, and not guilty on a count of threatening to kill.

In the High Court in Christchurch, the pair were remanded in custody by Justice Fogarty pending sentence later this month.

The Crown had alleged a woman, whose name is suppressed and who had been in an allegedly violent relationship with Noble, faced pressure to drop charges rising from a serious assault by Noble in September last year.

The pressure allegedly culminated in an attempt to murder her in February by an overdose of morphine, for which Noble's sister, Paula Noble, has been jailed for nine years.

Noble was yesterday acquitted of a charge of conspiring with Paula Noble to murder.

Noble had already admitted charges of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, kidnapping and threatening to kill related to the assault in September last year.

Summing up the case for the jury yesterday, the judge said it was a case where the Crown relied to a degree on circumstantial evidence.

When a series of reliably established facts began connecting, that could be proof beyond reasonable doubt.

He warned the jury to be objective and guard against any feelings of sympathy or prejudice.

As far as the conspiracy to murder charge against Noble, it came down to whether Dean Noble agreed with his sister Paula Noble that she would give an overdose to the complainant, the judge said.

Summing up the defence case for Samson, lawyer Raoul Neave said essentially he was caught in the middle of a friend's domestic dispute.

As for the events of February 15, the attempted murder, they had nothing whatsoever to do with Samson.

It was important for the jury to remember they were not in a court of morals but a court of law, and someone could not be convicted simply on the way they behaved, thought or spoke. It came down to what they actually did, and whether it was done with criminal intent.

There was little evidence to back the complainant's allegations against Samson. Demands for money were driven by the complainant, not Samson, who was passing on money from Noble he was required to pay as a parent.

As for the charge of threatening to kill a police officer, Samson was simply behaving like a clown at the time, but that did not make him a criminal, Neave said.

Summing up the case for Noble, David Ruth warned the jury to be careful. They could not just say Noble was a violent and suspicious character so therefore they would have to find him guilty.

While the complainant had been in an abusive relationship with Noble, for some reason women in abusive relationships wanted to keep going back, which she had done. In the aftermath of an unjustifiable assault, she was simply seeking normality, he said.

Regarding a false letter Noble wrote, purporting to be from her and asking to withdraw the charges, at the time it was written she was a full party to it, Ruth said.

The most serious charge Noble faced was the conspiracy to murder. There was no suggestion Noble was involved in supplying intravenous drugs, and there was no basis to think an attempt on the complainant's life was attributable to Dean Noble.

It was not enough to reason he had a motive. The jury needed hard evidence to conclude Dean Noble had a serious agreement with Paula Noble to kill the complainant.

No-one could say Dean Noble ever condoned killing the complainant, Ruth said.
 

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