A man assaulted one ambulance officer and made sexually offensive comments to another as they tried to treat him in downtown Queenstown.
The two Hato Hone St John volunteers were responding to a callout after a member of the public became concerned at seeing Christchurch man Taiene Lekali Moenoa, 32, vomiting and stumbling in the resort town’s CBD about 6pm on September 30.
After initially lying down in the ambulance, the heavily intoxicated man became "unco-operative and abusive" towards the male ambulance officer, police said.
He then made "offensive comments of a sexual nature" to the female ambulance officer before running from the scene.
He was arrested nearby about an hour later, but took to his heels again, running about 250m before being caught.
At Moenoa’s sentencing on charges of assault and resisting police in the Queenstown District Court this week , counsel Annaliese Carlaw applied for a discharge without conviction.
The offending was not premeditated and "very out of character", Ms Carlaw said.
Convictions would jeopardise the defendant’s future employment, ability to travel overseas, and cause "general stigma".
In an affidavit, the defendant said he was at a stag party in the CBD, but left his companions after feeling tired.
After he told the victim he wanted to get out of the ambulance, the latter responded by pushing him back down on the stretcher.
He claimed he pushed the victim with one hand, and only asked the female ambulance officer if she was single.
He later ran from the police because he was worried about getting another conviction.
In a written statement, the victim said he had been an ambulance officer for six years, and a volunteer firefighter for 11 years.
Since the assault, his partner and parents had felt a "heightened concern" for him while he was doing that work.
He had not supported diversion for the defendant because of his "zero-tolerance" attitude to violence against emergency health workers.
In written submissions, police said that Moenoa had been drinking heavily before the incident despite undergoing treatment for post-concussion syndrome.
The syndrome had been caused by the dozens of concussions he had suffered while playing rugby union and rugby league.
Judge Russell Walker said the defendant’s version of events minimised the force he used and the nature of his comments to the other ambulance officer.
The offending was aggravated by the fact the victim was an emergency health worker.
He noted the defendant’s previous convictions for dishonesty, intentional damage, disorderly behaviour and disqualified driving, the most recent in 2015.
He declined the application, convicted the defendant and imposed fines and court costs totalling $936.
