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Offender Database Mark Pehi

Mark Pehi

Alias

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Offences

Assaulted a Timaru police officer with a knife in April 2001
Had a previous conviction for threatening three officers with a knife in 1997
Numerous other convictions

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1959

Current Location

unknown

Parole/Release Dates

Was sentenced to just 18 months - suspended for 2 years - in July 2001
Successfully appealed by the Police and suspended sentence rescinded in July 2001

Background
From a Dominion Post article mid 2001
"The partners of Timaru police officers are shocked at the leniency of a sentence given a man for assaulting an officer, and say they are losing faith in the ability of the justice system to protect their loved ones. In the Timaru District Court last week Mark Pehi was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, for the assault.

The officer's clothing was slashed with a knife when police visited his home. It was the second time police had encountered a knife wielding Pehi. In 1997, he was convicted of threatening to kill after confronting three police officers with a butcher's knife.

In sentencing Pehi, Judge Edward Ryan said the court had to deal with what actually happened, rather than what might have happened. If the officer had been wounded Pehi would be facing three to four years, he said. While Pehi's lengthy record was mentioned in sentencing, the 1997 incident was not specified.

But several officers wives said a suspended sentence gave the wrong message to offenders. The wife of one of the three officers threatened by Pehi in 1997 said when he was given nine months supervision and four months periodic detention for that incident - also by Judge Ryan - she had thought. It was "pathetic". This time, she was shocked.

Further information would be appreciated....

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Corrections and Additional Information
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