Man acquitted of manslaughter of Simon Strickland can finally be named

The man a Wellington jury acquitted of manslaughter, on self-defence grounds, can finally be named.

Connor McPhee, 30, said he was acting in self defence when he struck Simon Strickland in February 2021, near Te Papa museum in Wellington.

Strickland, 58, died about four days later.

McPhee was charged with manslaughter and pleaded not guilty. In an 11-1 decision a jury at the High Court in Wellington acquitted him in March 2022.

His name was suppressed since his arrest more than a year earlier and, after the verdict, he asked for the suppression order to be made permanent.

McPhee’s lawyer put forward grounds including that publishing his name would cause him extreme hardship, for health and business reasons. The judge was told he was self-employed and had two or three people working for him.

The Crown opposed his name being permanently suppressed.

In her decision in May, Justice Cheryl Gwyn said McPhee was coping better now with anxiety related to the trial. The potential harm to his business was less if his name was published in the context of an acquittal, she said.

“Although publication of a person’s name in relation to a criminal charge – even when it results in an acquittal – is likely to cause some embarrassment or discomfort, these consequences are no more than those which usually arise from the fact of being a party to criminal proceedings,” the judge said.

The other reasons for asking for suppression did not amount to extreme hardship, she said. The hardship he would face would not outweigh the public’s right to know who appeared before the courts, she said.

McPhee filed an appeal against the refusal to grant suppression, but the appeal was abandoned just before the hearing in July.

The jury was told that McPhee and Strickland were strangers.

Strickland and a friend drew the wrong conclusion when they saw McPhee join two drunk women.

One of them was McPhee’s girlfriend who he came to collect, but Strickland and his friend thought McPhee was “hitting on” the women.

McPhee overheard some words Strickland and his friend used, asked if they were talking about him, but then apologised when they said they were just talking to each other, the jury was told.

But the incident sparked up again.

McPhee told police Strickland approached, threatened to smash him over, McPhee was scared and punched Strickland who fell and hit his head on the ground.