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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.