CCTV footage confirmed the van because it smashed into the entrance entrance of the Pettigrew Inexperienced enviornment.
This text particulars an allegation of rape which can be distressing for some readers.
A teenage woman says she was roped right into a ram raid that noticed an ATM containing nearly $20,000 ripped from a sports activities stadium, starting a 48-hour ordeal throughout which she was allegedly kidnapped and raped.
Now, Earl Strathern Campbell is on trial within the Excessive Court docket at Napier on costs of rape, sexual violation, kidnapping, strangulation, aggravated housebreaking and illegal possession of a firearm.
His father, Ricky Campbell, seems alongside him charged with kidnapping and being an adjunct to the housebreaking after the actual fact.
Each of their attorneys say the boys weren’t concerned.
Crown prosecutor Clayton Walker mentioned the ATM was taken from the Pettigrew Inexperienced Area, an all-weather sports activities and occasion centre in Taradale, Napier, within the early hours of November 8, 2020.
“It was a ram raid and the goal was the ATM machine within the hallway,” he advised the jury.
The ATM was loaded into the van which was then pushed out of the constructing and away. It contained $19,800.
“Not dangerous for 2 minutes’ work if you will get away with it,” Walker mentioned.
A CCTV video performed on the trial, pieced collectively from cameras inside and outdoors the constructing, confirmed a van crashing by way of a door on the centre. It’s pushed down a hallway, rotated after which pushed again the opposite approach.
The ATM will not be seen within the cameras, however the court docket was advised that the machine was knocked off its flooring mounts, taken away and opened with grinders.
The van and the ATM had been discovered by police later however there was no fingerprint or DNA proof linking them to the folks accountable. The cash was gone.
Nevertheless, Walker mentioned that 18 months after the raid, a younger girl got here ahead to inform police that she had been a passenger within the van and that she had been “roped into it” by Earl Campbell when she was 15 years outdated.
She alleged that the van had been taken to Ricky Campbell’s home, the place she was locked in a room whereas the ATM was opened.
Walker mentioned that was the beginning of a “48-hour nightmare” for the woman, who had recognized Earl Campbell beforehand.
He mentioned that Earl Campbell took her with him to dump the ATM and the van, after which to a motel, the place they stayed for 2 nights.
She was allegedly made to go together with Earl Campbell wherever he went.
“She was not free to go away by herself,” Walker mentioned.
On the primary evening, he raped her and compelled her to do sexual acts with him regardless of her saying no, the Crown alleged.
However Earl Campbell’s counsel, Manaaki Terekia, mentioned his consumer was by no means within the van, and was not at Ricky Campbell’s home when the ATM was opened.
He by no means sexually assaulted the woman in any approach and had been made a “scapegoat”.
“These allegations are full fabrications,” Terekia mentioned.
“Earl was merely not concerned. None of this has something to do with him.”
Ricky Campbell’s lawyer, Scott Jefferson, mentioned the younger girl, now 18, was not telling the reality in regards to the older man.
“There isn’t any actual reality in what she has to say about him,” Jefferson mentioned.
The younger girl has statutory title suppression.
The trial earlier than Justice Helen Cull and a jury of eight males and 4 ladies is anticipated to final two weeks.
Ric Stevens spent a few years working for the previous New Zealand Press Affiliation information company, together with as a political reporter at Parliament, earlier than holding senior positions at numerous every day newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice group in 2022 and relies in Hawke’s Bay. His writing within the crime and justice sphere is knowledgeable by 4 years of front-line expertise as a probation officer.
