Judge turns tables on driver's schoolboy accuser

By Jarrod Booker — NZ Herald

A school­bus driver was taken to court for grabbing the arm of a rowdy boy who would not stop pulling a girl’s hair.

But the judge threw out the charge — and had a police­man take the 12-year-old boy to the police cells as a warning.

Jim McCorkindale, 70, of Gore in Southland, told the Weekend Herald that while drop­ping off chil­dren last July, he saw two boys pulling the hair of a girl and got out of his driver’s seat to try to stop it.

“I went over and touched the boy on the arm to attract his atten­tion, and that was the assault.”

When the boy did not respond to being told to stop, “I threatened to hit him in the ribs, and he flinched and let the kid’s hair go to pro­tect his ribs”, Mr McCorkindale said.

“But I never touched him again.”

The boy had con­tin­ued mis­be­hav­ing after Mr McCorkindale returned to his seat.

Children on the bus called the police and he found officers wait­ing to talk to him when he fin­ished his run.

When police rejec­ted the option of diver­sion, Mr McCorkindale received a court summons.

But in the Gore District Court, Judge Kevin Phillips threw out the charge.

Instead, he told the boy he should be “thor­oughly ashamed” of him­self and had a police­man take him to the cells, the Southland Times reported.

Mr McCorkindale said he found it dis­gust­ing that he was charged in the first place.

“You can’t do a bloody thing,” he said. “It’s bet­ter to hop out of the bus and leave them to it. See nothing.

“The days of sit down, shut up, do as you are told, are gone. When I was going to school, you did what you were told. Now, you some­times do as you’re asked — if it suits you.”

The Weekend Herald approached police yes­ter­day about the decision to charge Mr McCorkindale, but officers spoken to said they were unable to comment.

Mr McCorkindale, whose wife died at Christmas, said: “I sup­pose they have got their ways of doing things. But it’s not my idea of fairness.

“It was straight-out bloody ridicu­lous, in my opin­ion. I was a little bit con­cerned, not so much for myself, but for my invalid wife who was with me at the time.”

Mr McCorkindale said that although the charge had been dropped, he was still left with legal bills, and had no idea how he was going to pay them.

“The [boy] who caused the trouble, he gets off scot-free. The police were doing his work.”

Although the boy had apo­lo­gised, Mr McCorkindale said the mes­sage from the judge “wouldn’t mean a damn thing to him”.

He said he was now con­sid­er­ing quit­ting driv­ing the schoolbus.