Hurt people: suspended sentence; Hurt cows: 2 years in prison
Not saying the bastard didn?t deserve the prison time, but it does put Ross Filipo?s ?Losi Filipo’s case in stark contrast.
A Waikato slaughterman who admitted abusing more than 100 bobby calves has had his sentence of home detention replaced on appeal by a two-year prison term.
Noel Erickson’s original sentence, which including 200 hours of community, was handed down in the Huntly District Court in July.
The 39-year-old had earlier pleaded guilty to 10 charges relating to the abuse of 111 bobby calves at a Te Kauwhata pet food processing plant in August last year.
The charges included wilfully ill-treating a calf and representative charges of recklessly ill-treating calves, ill-treating calves and using blunt force trauma.
The maximum penalty he faced was five years’ imprisonment. ? Read more »

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.
They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.
He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.
Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.
To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.