Not guilty verdict after siblings fish and chip battle ended up in court

A New Zealand man has been found not guilty of kicking and punching his sister because she did not share some fish and chips with him. New Plymouth District Court heard Luke James Martin, 24, of Taranaki deny two counts of assaulting a female after the alleged incident when he was staying at his sister's Stratford home.

During the trial the jury was told 10 family members were living in the four-bedroom house at the time. There was little food apart from the previous night's soup in the house. Crown prosecutor Nina Elliott said the sister, Teraumahoro Taputoro, her partner, another brother and their babies were all in her bedroom where the children were having fish and chips for tea.



Taputoro had given Martin, his girlfriend and another woman money to go to buy bread to make toast to go with the soup. But when Martin returned to find the rest of the family in his sister's room with fish and chips he became angered. He went barging into the bedroom ranting that they were not sharing with him, Elliott said. When he asked why they were not sharing she said she told him they bought fish and chips for the babies because they did not like soup.

When his sister tried to settle him down, he had kicked her in the stomach sending her flying into a corner on her back. He then grabbed a pot with the previous night's dinner in it and bashed a hole in the wall. When she told him to leave the house he punched her in the chest. Police were called. Martin's defence counsel Kelly Marriner said there was no love lost between the sister and brother at the time and she wanted him out of the house. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty on both counts of assault.