Kiwi Teen Gets Home Detention for Eight Months for Racist Rant, Assault on Tourist

New Zealand’s Dunedin District Court sentenced a teenager to eight months of home detention for a racist rant against an Indian man and a drunken attack on a Australian tourist at a family fun park at  Wanaka, South Island, Otago Daily Times reported.

Taylor William Meikle, 18, appeared before the court on May 29 and admitted to charge of injury with intent. The incident happened at the Puzzling World park on Jan. 20, 2018. Meikle was also convicted of assault and usage of threatening language aimed at an Indian man and his five-year-old daughter.

The incident took place when Meikle and four others drove to Central Otago to attend a show. They stopped at the establishment’s parking area by the Wanaka Luggate highway. Among the group, two others, besides Meikle, are facing charges. According to the police, the three defendants were in an “intoxicated state” and the witnesses indicate that they were “actively looking for trouble.”

Meikle, who was holding a beer bottle, “shouted a barrage of racial abuse” at an Indian man and his young daughter, the report said. He said “you should go back to your own f***ing country” and “it’s my country and not yours,” according to the chargesheet filed against him.

Judge Kevin Phillips said to Meikle in the court: “I don’t know if you were acting the big man to the girls in your car or if you are just racist.”

A bystander apologized to the Indian man on Meikle’s behalf and assured him that not all Kiwis “were like that” (racist). As this was going on, an Australian tourist came in and saw Meikle’s car reverse into a parked vehicle. As he went to check the damage to the parked car, one of the three defendants threw a beer bottle at the tourist, who ducked out of the way.

The Australian man was then punched and kicked by the three. He curled up on the ground with his arms covering his head, while his wife and children watched as they could not stop the altercation. When his wife tried to intervene, Meikle pulled her away, saying, “I’m a boxer, he’s doing alright!”

Another defendant told the wife that they are not afraid to hit her. A bystander managed to drag the victim out for a brief period before one of the three ran up to him from behind and wrestled him to the ground again. Meikle dragged the victim’s wife away a second time.

It was only when a girlfriend of one of the defendants gave her partner the ultimatum to get in the car or their relationship was over, that the assault stopped.

The Australian man suffered bruises on his chest and upper body, grazes on his elbows, knees and a sore neck. “You acted appallingly in a tourist center against a tourist – the lifeblood of this country’s economy,” Judge Phillips said to Meikle, who was also sentenced to 200 hours of community work and ordered to pay the Australian man $350.

Sheridan Christopher Raynor Foot, 18, has been remanded until next month to find a potential home-detention address. The third defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charge against him. He will appear in court in July.