IAIN MCGREGOR/Stuff
Acen Fairbrother chased a burglar then got attacked by a police dog that mistakenly thought he was the criminal.
A woman has admitted a drug-addled burglary which led to a bystander's pants being shredded by a police dog.
The bystander, Acen Fairbrother, chased Melanie Jan Pardoe, 37, as she fled with items from a Christchurch garage – a broom, a mop, and a fishing rod.
First, she turned on him with a power drill – which looked like a handgun in the dark – and threatened to shoot him.
Acen Fairbrother's shorts were shredded and he has grazes on his legs from the dog's teeth.
Fairbrother tried to speak to a police dog handler who was running up, but the dog went for him, biting his leg and shredding his shorts. The officer pulled the dog away, leaving him with grazes on his leg and ruined pants.
Pardoe was found crouching in a bush nearby.
After the burglary incident, the police dog handler insisted on meeting Fairbrother at a shopping mall and buying him a new pair of pants.
She denied the charges of burglary and threatening to kill and was due for a judge-alone trial at the Christchurch District Court on Friday, but before it began she pleaded guilty to burglary and a reduced charge of threatening behaviour.
She also admitted charges of careless driving and assault over a separate incident in December 2017, when there was a fracas between two groups outside a pharmacy.
Defence counsel Andrew McKenzie said insults and punches were thrown, and the windows of Pardoe's car were broken in the incident. When she tried to drive clear, the car "crashed" between a rubbish bin and a lamppost, Mr McKenzie said.
The burglar turned on Fairbrother with a power drill – which looked like a handgun in the dark – and threatened to shoot him.
The burglary incident took place at 11.30pm on January 15, 2018, when she went onto a property in Blenheim Rd and took a camera and a power drill from two cars in the driveway. She then went into a garage and took a broom, a mop, and a fishing rod.
McKenzie said Pardoe had "strayed" on to the property while she was clearly under the influence of some medication. "She has taken unusual items for a burglary."
The victim followed her along the road where she stopped and produced the power drill. She told him: "I have got a gun. I'll f.....g shoot you."
All the stolen items were recovered when she was found.
When she talked to a probation officer ahead of her sentencing, she said she had "lapsed into illicit drug use at the time of the offending". She is on the methadone programme.
She acknowledged a supervision sentence would be helpful.
Judge Allan Roberts agreed to sentence her straight away, noting that she had no burglary offending on her record, and she said she had been clean of drugs since the burglary incident.
He placed her on supervision for a year, with a special condition to ensure she remains on the methadone programme and ordered that she do 125 hours of community work.
Stuff