A transient man who taunted Queenstown police as he waded around the resort’s lake shallows for an hour and a-half has been sentenced to four months’ prison.
The lakefront incident, on September 21, was sparked by Parker’s behaviour while he was walking on Marine Parade about noon, which prompted a member of the public to complain to police.
When two officers approached, he began yelling and waded into Queenstown Bay in an area busy with commercial jet-boat traffic.
The police summary of facts said he repeatedly yelled "here piggy piggy" and "you’re all Nazis" at the officers as his antics attracted a crowd of onlookers.
Dislodging a rusty steel bar from underneath a wharf, he climbed on to the lake wall and walked along it before putting it down and getting back into the lake, continuing to hurl insults at police.
He stayed in the lake for about 90minutes before he was coaxed out and arrested, but struggled and refused to comply with directions.
The next morning, when an officer went into his cell to wake him in preparation for a lawyer’s visit and court appearance, he failed to respond.
"Minor pain compliance" techniques — pressing finger tips and ear lobe pressure points and vigorous shaking of his shoulder — were eventually used to assess if he needed medical attention.
An ambulance was called after he still failed to respond, but as officers waited in the cell for it to arrive, Parker "suddenly jumped up and started throwing punches".
One punch connected with the face of a policewoman, although she was uninjured.
The police had already dealt with Parker two days earlier, when he was staying at a backpackers in Frankton Rd. About 8pm on September 20, he began yelling insults at other guests, calling them "whores" and "Nazis".
He refused to leave, saying he would only do so if served with a trespass notice. Police were called and he was arrested.
In court this week, Judge Russell Walker sentenced Parker on charges of trespass, disorderly behaviour, resisting police and assaulting a constable, all from the September incidents.
The judge also dealt with three other charges — assault and theft in Westland on September 5, and assaulting a corrections officer at Southland Prison on November 9.
Parker admitted the charges after he was told he would be released that day if he did so, owing to time already spent in custody and a sentence reduction for his guilty pleas.
