Year’s jail on shooting count

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 6

Year’s jail on shooting count

Considerable injury to an innocent young woman was the result of "drinking making you quite mad,” Mr Justice Hardie Boys told John Pueata Siu, aged 27, a driver, in the High Court yesterday. Siu was sentenced to 12 months jail on two charges of reckless disregard for the safety of others and unlawfully possessing a sawn-off 12gauge shotgun. The charges related to Siu’s shooting of a woman in a Christchurch massage parlour at 6.20 a.m. on December 6, last year. Siu pleaded guilty to shooting Susan Ann Voshaar who suffered multiple pellet wounds to the body and underwent surgery in Christchurch Hospital. She was not known to Siu, or his friend, whom he accompanied to the massage parlour. Siu’s counsel, Mr J. G. Hardie, said that Siu wanted to emphasise that he thought the safety

catch on the sawn-off shotgun was on and did not expect it to fire through an office wall and hit Voshaar.

Siu had earlier been drinking with a friend “Bob,” at an address in Stanmore Road. Several telephone calls were exchanged in relation to a domestic dispute with Bob’s wife at the massage parlour, Mr Hardie told the Court. “There was verbal abuse on the telephone and the two men decided to go down to the parlour,” he said. “Bob’s involvement was deliberately played down by my client in his statement to the police.

“Siu would not have been at the parlour if Bob had not insisted. At that point, the other chap, Bob, was the instigator of the incident.”

When Siu pulled out the shotgun from under his clothing the girls were frightened and ran into a

room next door, Mr Hardie said. “If Siu was intent on doing permanent injury the gun would surely have gone off at that point,” he said. “As it was, the girls had run into the next room and had time to call the police.” Medical reports on the condition of Susan Voshaar had shown signs of near or complete recovery from the pellet wounds, Mr Hardie said. For the Crown, Mr R. H. D. Neave said that Siu must have had a certain degree of premeditation in taking the shotgun to the massage parlour. “Siu’s imprisonment should be for a term which reflects the Court’s and society’s abhorrence of this type of offending,” he said.

Mr Justice Hardie Boys said that he was prepared to accept that Siu did not mean to fire the shotgun and had no intention of hurting Susan Voshaar. “He took the gun that was loaded obviously with the intent of using it as a back-up,” his Honour said. “That sort of thing is not to be tolerated.”

He said he would bring Siu’s alcoholism to the attention of prison authorities who might make provision for treatment during Siu’s parole.