Conservative Party Law & Justice Spokesman Stephen Taylor says the party is supporting Steve Howley, the West Auckland lawn mowing contractor who was publicly accused by Maori Party President John Tamihere of defacing the Maori Party Tamaki Makaurau candidate's by-election signs in a Facebook post that went viral.

Stephen is also the director of Litigation Support Services, an agency that supports Self-Represented Litigants to navigate the New Zealand judicial system, and will lead this advocacy in support of Mr Howley.

“Having met with Mr Howley, and after hearing his story, it is appalling to me that a private individual can be going about his business, only to be falsely accused of doing something that he hasn’t done, and become the victim of a viral "dog-whistle" attack against himself, his business, and his family, as has happened to Mr Howley” says Mr Taylor.

“Having reviewed the relevant legislation, it is very clear to me that Mr Tamihere’s reported action against Mr Howley, would meet the various criminal thresholds for a posting of a harmful digital communication causing serious emotional distress under the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015”.

"I will be approaching the Waitemata Police on behalf of Mr Howley regarding this matter, and walking them through these criminal thresholds, which themselves meet both police prosecutorial evidential and public interest guidelines for Police to be able to consider progressing with a prosecution against Mr Tamihere for posting a digital communication causing harm to Mr Howley”.

“Mr Howley reports that he did nothing wrong - in the process of cleaning his own defaced company signs, Mr Howley was photographed by a passerby in the vicinity of a Maori Party Election sign which had been similarly defaced. This person jumped to the erroneous conclusion that Mr Howley was defacing a the Maori Party sign, and somehow their photo and the corresponding post reached Mr Tamihere’s Facebook page, and was allegedly shared at least 140 times, and attracted hundreds of comments. A number of these comments were allegedly threatening to Mr Howley to such an extent that Mr Howley feared for his safety, and declined to go back to work for several days, costing Mr Howley a significant loss of income, introducing service delays for Mr Howley’s clients, and resulting in negative physical and psychological health effects upon Mr Howley, owing to the stress and trauma resulting from the alleged action of Mr Tamihere against Mr Howley”.

“In addition, Mr Howley allegedly had photos of his children lifted from his personal Facebook page and reposted onto Mr Tamihere’s Facebook page”.

“In the material I have seen, I believe that the veracity of the available evidence in this matter can be reasonably sustained, and the Police should have no problem advancing this matter to a criminal prosecution”.

“However, if the Waitemata Police Prosecution Service decline to prosecute this matter, despite the overwhelming evidence that criminal thresholds for posting a digital communication causing harm against Mr Howley have been met, then the Conservative Party of New Zealand will assist Mr Howley in filing a private prosecution in this matter, under the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015,” says Mr Taylor.

Conservative Party Law & Justice Spokesman Stephen Taylor (see profile: https://www.conservatives.nz/stephen-taylor utm_campaign=74fa7267-53dc-473b-9c52-9644126a52fc&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&cid=32ecd418-1824-484d-bcfc-4736c498a7c3)

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