Luke Smith, 21, arrived in New Zealand earlier this year with his family from South Africa. Smith was attending an event in the city celebrating South Africans before he was fatally injured.
He was put on life support after the alleged assault outside the Reading Cinema complex on Wellington’s Courtenay Place in the early hours of Sunday, October 6.
Today in the Wellington District Court that charge was withdrawn and substituted for a charge of manslaughter.
Judge Brandt Shortland remanded Siale on bail to appear in the High Court at Wellington next month. He did not continue name suppression and also varied Siale’s conditions of bail, limiting his ability to travel.
A Givealittle page set up to help send Smith’s body back to South Africa has raised almost $25,000.
The post said he was a “vibrant young man” whose life was “senselessly cut short”.
“His death has shattered his family, leaving them in unimaginable grief, heartache, and now facing unexpected financial challenges as they try to navigate this terrible reality.”
