A man sent to prison for sending death threats to New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has had his conviction overturned.
Michael Cruickshank was sentenced to 12 months in prison in March, for a series of emails in which he made violent threats against Ardern. He argued that he was so drunk he could not remember sending the threats, had no intention of seeing them through, and didn’t intend the recipients to take them seriously. On Wednesday, the court of appeal judged that there had been a miscarriage of justice in the case.
The overturning of his charges hinged on his alleged drunkenness, and whether it had been made clear to the jury that Cruickshank’s intoxication was relevant to his defence. Cruickshank said in police interviews: “To be perfectly frank I do not remember sending any emails … I was absolutely wasted so it’s possible I could’ve.”
To be found guilty, prosecutors had to demonstrate that Cruickshank not only sent the threats to kill but intended the recipient to take them seriously.
“The defence was that Mr Cruickshank had no recollection of sending [the death threats], but if he did send them he lacked the necessary intent primarily because of intoxication. There can be no issue that intoxication was at the heart of the defence,” judge Simon France wrote in the court of appeal decision.
The court ruled that “intoxication can be taken into account when assessing whether a defendant had the required intent” and because this was not set out clearly to the jury, it “left the jury in doubt as to the relevance, if any, of Mr Cruickshank’s alleged drunken state”. As a result, the court ruled that there had been a miscarriage of justice, overturning his conviction. They did not order a retrial.
Cruickshank’s threats to Ardern came in the wake of 88 emails he had sent to government officials over a four-month period, in which he referred to them as criminals and terrorists. His case, described by the original presiding judge as “strik[ing] at the roots of our democracy” emerged amid a spike in death threats aimed at the prime minister.
In June it was reported that threats against Ardern had almost tripled over three years, which police said was driven by a rise in conspiracy movements and a backlash against vaccinations.
That data, released to Newshub under the Official Information Act, showed police in 2021 dealt with 50 threats against the prime minister, up from 32 in 2020 and 18 in 2019. While police could not determine motives for every threat, the documents showed anti-vaccination sentiment was a driving force of a number of them, and opposition to legislation to regulate firearms after the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks was another factor.
Across parliament, MPs have also reported a rise in abuse, vitriol and threats – particularly against Māori women. According to police data released under the Official Information Act to 1News in January, threats towards MPs reached a three-year high in 2021.
