A serial thief has avoided adding sexual-offending to her conviction history after kissing a police officer as he loaded her into a patrol car.
Emma-Louise Kiwara, 36, was charged with indecently assaulting the officer, but the charge was later downgraded to common assault.
The incident last December wasduring one of Kiwara’s multiple arrests for burglary and shoplifting offences.
The Lower Hutt woman was sentenced in the Hutt Valley District Court recently on numerous charges, including shoplifting, unlawfully being in buildings, common assault, assault on police, burglary, failing to provide particulars to police and breach of community work.
According to the summaries of fact released to the Herald, on several occasions Kiwara shoplifted from large stores such as the Warehouse and Kmart, taking nearly $1300 worth of goods.
The summaries describe her leaving the stores wearing multiple stolen items and concealing others in bags and suitcases.
On one occasion police noticed her fleeing the Warehouse Levin and gave chase. She was caught in the bathroom of a nearby McDonald’s attempting to destroy the stolen property to conceal it. She had also altered her clothes to try to avoid detection.
Emma-Louise Kiwara was sentenced in the Hutt Valley District Court. File photo / Melissa Nightingale
On two occasions she broke into early childhood centres, including a daycare and a Taita kindergarten. Police were called to the latter by a contractor after he noticed a handbag on a bench near an open window.
“The defendant was located hiding in a storage cupboard and had attempted to conceal herself from view,” the summary said.
“As the defendant was being escorted to the police patrol vehicle, she hoicked up a ball of spit and spat three times towards [the constable].”
On another occasion, she squeezed herself through a narrow gap in fencing surrounding four partially built townhouses in Stokes Valley, and began searching the construction site.
She found a toolbox and put it in her backpack before leaving the property, but was caught nearby by police Officers also found a jemmy bar tucked into her waistband.
As a police officer was putting her into the patrol car and doing up her seatbelt for her, she kissed him, the summary said.
“The victim did not give the defendant implicit or explicit consent for the defendant to kiss him.”
Her breach of community work related to nearly 250 outstanding hours, with the probation service noting she had only completed half an hour of at the time the report was prepared.
Kiwara appeared in court on June 26, where the judge sentenced her to home detention for six months and two weeks.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.
