BDSM RTV NEWS!!!!


16 may 2009


Sadomasochist has convictions quashed


Source: www.stuff.co.nz Stuff.co.nz - New Zealand


A Christchurch dungeon owner ordered to serve nine months' home detention for injuring two teenagers in bondage and discipline sessions has had his convictions quashed on appeal and a new trial ordered.


In November last year, Richard Jeffrey Barker was convicted in Christchurch District Court on one count of injuring with intent to injure, and one of wounding with intent to injure.

He was acquitted on five counts of indecency.

The charges arose after the girls, aged 15 and 17, were scarred during a sadomasochism session in a dungeon at his suburban Linwood home in 2006.

Using a scalpel, Barker carved his pseudonym, Dragon, on to the shoulder of the 15-year-old and cut a design into the breast area of the 17-year-old girl while she was in bondage, the court was told.

Defence counsel Tim Fournier said the girls had given "fully informed consent" for what took place.

But Judge Kevin Phillips said Barker, in his 50s, could not use the defence of consent, principally because of the girls' young age but also because the scars would be semi-permanent and because the 17-year-old had taken nitrous oxide gas.

Barker appealed his convictions on the sole ground that Judge Phillips had wrongly withdrawn the defence of consent on public policy grounds.
In findings released today, Appeal Court Justices Susan Glazebrook, Grant Hammond and Mark O'Regan ruled that because Barker did not intend to seriously injure his victims, consent was available as a defence.
Had the charges been more serious - grievous bodily harm - the ruling might have been different, the judges said.

At the original trial, Judge Phillips said the girls' victim impact statements made distressing reading.

One of the girls was put on anti-psychotic medication after the encounter with Barker and the other suffered depression, anxiety, paranoia and panic attacks, he said.

- NZPA