Michael Jai Smith allegedly stole a car with a baby inside on 10 May. Photo: Supplied / Police
A Taranaki man has pleaded not guilty to abducting a child after a car was stolen - with a baby inside - from outside a Waitara dairy last month.
Security camera footage showed a man getting out of the car after driving a few hundred metres - and while it was still moving - grabbing something from the back seat and putting it on the grass verge on Cameron Street.
Michael Jai Smith appeared in the New Plymouth District Court today on a raft of charges.
He admitted the vast majority but took issue with an abduction of a child and aggravated assault charges.
On 10 May, Smith allegedly stole a car left unlocked with the motor running from outside a dairy.
Discovering the baby, he pulled over and left the child on a grass verge.
His defence counsel Nathan Bourke said the not-guilty plea related to whether an abduction charge was appropriate in the circumstances.
"The two issues where a not guilty plea is made it is essentially a legal issue. The facts are acknowledged," he said.
"Mr Smith attempted to steal a car that was parked with the engine running outside a diary. He's got in and as he's backing a way he's discovered there was a baby in the back.
"He went approximately 200m down the road and then removed the baby and it's whether in those circumstances - which is admitted - an abduction charge is appropriate."
Bourke said the 34-year-old had pleaded guilty to stealing the car and acknowledged that the fact there was a baby in it would be an aggravating factor.
"The facts are narrow and not really in dispute. He did get in the car. There's no dispute. He stops a few hundred metres down the road and took the child out.
"Without having to get into it now, it's my submission he wasn't trying to deprive the parent given that his actions were quite clearly 'I don't want this child in this car that I'm stealing'. That will be for legal discussion."
He expected the issue could be resolved quickly.
"It won't need a trial in two years' time because it's going to be resolved via pre-trial legal argument over whether those circumstances warrant an abduction charge."
Trial by jury had been elected to get the Crown involved, Bourke said.
The judge decided to deal with all the charges Smith faced at the same time and remanded him in custody until 22 August for a case review.