Christchurch eye surgeon Ian Dallison attempted to murder his former business landlord, Alberto Ceccarelli, while he was eating dinner with his wife, Antje Schmidt. Dallison was intimate with District Court Judge Jane Farish, who was declared bankrupt on August 4, 2022. After being declared bankrupt, Dallison stormed into the Lyttleton home and attempted to shoot him. He was jailed for almost seven years.
The Supreme Court decided on Tuesday, suppressing some evidence and submissions within the judgment, but not Farish’s name nor her relationship with Dallison. Farish was Dallison’s girlfriend at the time of the attack on Ceccarelli and Schmidt. The court accepted that Farish knew nothing of Dallison’s plans and had no involvement in the offending.
The court ruled that the public interest in Dallison’s offending extends to the fact that his girlfriend knows the victims and took a call from one in the immediate aftermath of the offending.
The court also found that the information posing the greatest risk to personal safety is on the court record only because the appellant disclosed it to explain the nature of the risk she faces. The details of that information were suppressed and redacted from the court’s judgment.
Photo credit: RNZ/The Press
