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Case #14736 Rating: 3.1 out of 5
Mouse killed
Devonport, AU (NZ)Incident Date: Friday, Feb 8, 2008
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Lindsay Rowles
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available
The man charged with biting a pet mouse has been revealed as Lindsay Rowles, whose two children drowned when his boat sank near Waiheke Island last year.
Rowles yesterday told the Herald on Sunday he did not kill Nibbles the mouse on February 8 and was actually "kissing" it goodbye.
The 54-year-old also denied taking the rodent from a woman's cleavage as alleged by police.
Rowles, who is also facing charges over the death of his children Erina, 8, and Travis 5, said he knew Nibbles' owner. He said she came to him with tears pouring down her cheeks, worried about her dying pet.
"She held it out by its tail. I took it from her, kissed it, and said 'goodbye little mousie, see you in heaven'," said Rowles.
His wife Tania added: "He did not go near that woman's top. He's got no teeth to bite with anyway."
Rowles appeared in the North Shore District Court last week facing charges of indecent assault, offensive behaviour and cruelty to an animal over the incident, which occurred as the couple was moving out of their Devonport home.
Nibbles' owner told police she was walking her young son to school with the mouse nestled in her top when a group of drunk men confronted her in a "barbaric" attack.
Rowles is also charged with operating a vessel in a manner causing unnecessary danger or risk after the family launch sank off Waiheke last Anzac Day. Yesterday, he said he was a "loving father".
"I was a loving father who had loving children and a loving wife until my children drowned."
He said he and Tania were still grieving. "This misreporting is making me sound like a predator, a mouse-eating man."
Rowles is due to reappear on March 17.
Case UpdatesAn Auckland boatie whose children drowned when the family runabout "went down like the Titanic" in Hauraki Gulf failed to do the most basic safety checks, an Auckland court has been told.
Lindsay Terrence Rowles, 55, formerly of Devonport, was sentenced in North Shore District Court yesterday to 250 hours' community service after pleading guilty to operating a boat in a manner causing unnecessary danger or risk.
His two children, Travis, 5, and Erina, 8, were asleep in the cabin, heads resting on their lifejackets, when the boat sank on Anzac Day last year.
Maritime NZ lawyer Mark Davies told the court Rowles took his family out fishing just hours after paying $28,000 for the boat, a boat trailer and a Mitsubishi Pajero.
Without doing any safety checks, he launched the 6.7-metre aluminium boat at Torpedo Bay in Devonport "with an apparent lack of experience", according to witnesses, then set off for Palm Beach, Waiheke Island, where they were joined by two other adults.
They remained docked there for several hours, drinking alcohol before moving on to Onetangi. Rowles told the investigator some also smoked cannabis, but said he did not.
At some time during the day, he found a drainage bung inside the boat and got several of the group to dive into the water to look for the hole. When no one could find any, he decided no bungs were missing.
Ten minutes after someone, possibly his son, turned on the bilge pump, Rowles turned it off. Despite water "spewing" over the side and he being a "little concerned" that the pump was on, he did not look to see where it was being pumped from.
Instead, the group went to the RSA for dinner, bought more alcohol, then went night fishing off Tarahiki Island.
Rowles said he was "relatively sober" when he went below at midnight and slept between his two children. His lawyer, Geoff Anderson, said Rowles woke to find the mattress was wet and, in a panic, decided to ground the boat in a bid to save them, while his wife, Tania, who had been fishing off the back of the boat, went below to be with the children.
Mr Anderson said Rowles said the boat "went down like the Titanic".
Mrs Rowles was holding on to them when the boat sank but she may have been knocked out, for the next thing she knew she was on the surface, her children nowhere in sight, he said.
A Maritime NZ expert said that, when the boat grounded, its front lifted, sending the water rushing to the rear.
Earlier this year, Rowles was convicted of cruelty to an animal after he grabbed a pet mouse from a woman's cleavage and bit off its head.
At a separate hearing, he admitted driving with excess breath alcohol and possessing drug utensils and cannabis.
He and his wife now live on Waiheke Island, where they own a sex shop. | Source: Dominion Post - Nov 25, 2008
Update posted on Nov 24, 2008 - 8:38PM |
Former Devonport resident Lindsay Rowles has plead guilty to charges relating to a February 8 attack on a pet mouse.
Rowles, 54, appeared at the North Shore District Court on Friday facing charges of cruelty to an animal and offensive behaviour relating to the incident as well as unrelated drink-driving, drug and disorderly behaviour charges.
Justice Barbara Morris sentenced Rowles to 180 hours' community work, 12 months' supervision and to undergo drug and alcohol counselling. He has also been disqualified from driving for 12 months.
On February 8, a woman was walking along a Devonport road carrying her son's pet mouse, Nibbles, in her blouse.
She walked across the road to to Rowles' home to see his wife when he noticed the mouse.
He pulled the mouse by its tail from the woman's top before lowering it into his mouth.
The mouse wriggled as Rowles closed his mouth, pretending to eat it while the distraught victim and his wife pleaded he take the mouse out.
He flicked the saliva-covered and motionless Nibbles back into the victim's hand.
Defence lawyer Geoff Anderson told the court of a "substantial hearing" Rowles is facing in November, referring to charges over the death of his two children in a 2007 boating tragedy.
Judge Morris said Rowles' actions can only be described as bizzare.
She said it was very cruel that the woman was forced to watch her family pet be killed.
"The trauma would have been significant."
Referring to the boating tragedy, Judge Morris said Rowles has suffered what must have been one of the most traumatic events any person can suffer.
"Your mental health at the time could not have been in a good state." | Source: Stuff.Co.Nz - Oct 17, 2008
Update posted on Oct 17, 2008 - 12:45AM |
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