http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Christopher_HarderChristopher Harder - Revision history2026-06-01T23:16:06ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.1http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?title=Christopher_Harder&diff=6612906&oldid=previmported>Srich32977: cleanup2025-06-10T21:21:32Z<p>cleanup</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Canadian-born lawyer}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}<br />
{{Infobox person<br />
| name = Christopher Harder<br />
| image = <br />
| image_size = <br />
| caption = <br />
| birth_name = <br />
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1948}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Vancouver]], British Columbia, Canada<br />
| nationality = [[Canadians|Canadian]]<br />
| alma mater = [[University of Auckland]]<br />
| employer = <br />
| occupation = [[Barrister]] (disbarred)<br />
}}<br />
'''Christopher Lloyd Harder''' (born 1948) is a Canadian-born former [[lawyer]] based in [[Auckland]], [[New Zealand]].<ref name="Reinvent">{{cite news |title=Harder vows to reinvent himself |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/harder-vows-to-reinvent-himself/FG3E5PTYXMITQGLINXBF5RYGUA/ |access-date=2 September 2024 |work=New Zealand Herald |date=11 February 2006 |language=en-NZ}}</ref><br />
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He became a prominent criminal lawyer in New Zealand through his involvement in several high-profile trials, including the 1989 death of Peter Plumley-Walker, about which he published a book. In 1988 he was briefly detained in [[Fiji]] when attempting to represent a number of Fijian citizens accused of plotting against the [[1987 Fijian coups d'état|post-coup government]] there.<ref name="CT">{{cite news |title=Fiji: Five men detained |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/101990743?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FC%2Ftitle%2F11%2F1988%2F06%2F23%2Fpage%2F11012195%2Farticle%2F101990743 |work=Canberra Times |date=23 June 1988 |page=5|via=[[Trove]]}}</ref> He was [[Disbarment|disbarred]] in New Zealand in 2006 after admitting professional misconduct.<ref name="Changed">{{cite news |title=I've changed, says disbarred lawyer |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ive-changed-says-disbarred-lawyer/F3V6FA6UIPIFIYHEQVRRG23PBI/ |access-date=2 September 2024 |work=New Zealand Herald |date=20 October 2007 |language=en-NZ}}</ref> He has since worked as an administrator and marketing manager.<ref name="Fisher" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Harder to Mellower for Renegade |url=https://www.lawyerhelp.co.nz/news-2011-03/ |website=Sunday Star Times |date=20 March 2010|via=LawyerHelp}}</ref><ref name="Anderson">{{cite news |last1=Anderson |first1=Jock |title=Thriving lady lawyer rapped for hiring gopher Harder |url=https://www.nbr.co.nz/thriving-lady-lawyer-rapped-for-hiring-gopher-harder/ |work=[[National Business Review]] |date=24 February 2010 |language=en-NZ}} {{paywalled}}</ref><br />
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==Early life==<br />
Harder was born a twin in Vancouver, Canada in 1948.<ref name="LLG">{{cite book |last1=Harder |first1=Christopher |title=Through the Legal Looking Glass |date=2002 |publisher=Howling at the Moon |location=Auckland |isbn=9780958205498 |page=9}}</ref> He emigrated to New Zealand in 1976 and studied law at the [[University of Auckland]]. He was [[Admission to practice law|admitted to the bar]] in New Zealand in May 1983.<ref name="Reinvent" /><br />
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==Legal career==<br />
===Fiji===<br />
In 1988, Harder was briefly detained in Fiji after travelling there to represent eight [[Rotuma|Rotuman]] chiefs accused of [[sedition]] and five [[Fijian Indians]] charged following the discovery of a cache of [[Soviet]]-made weapons.<ref name=CT /><ref name="Reinvent" /> Harder published a book about his experience, ''The Guns of Lautoka''.<ref name="Macdonald 1990">{{cite journal |last1=Macdonald |first1=Barrie |title=Literature of the Fiji Coups |journal=[[The Contemporary Pacific]] |date=Spring 1990 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=198–207 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23701525 |language=en|JSTOR=23701525}} {{registration}}</ref><br />
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===Plumley-Walker murder trial===<br />
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In 1989, the decomposing body of cricket umpire Peter Plumley-Walker was found floating in New Zealand's [[Huka Falls]] with its hands and feet bound, allegedly after a [[Bondage (BDSM)|bondage]] session gone wrong.<ref>{{cite web |title=Plumley-Walker's accidental death, 1989 |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/plumley-walker-039-s-accidental-death |website=New Zealand History |publisher=NZ Ministry for Culture & Heritage |access-date=3 September 2024}}</ref> Teenage [[dominatrix]] Renee Chignell (then aged 18) and her boyfriend Neville Walker – the latter represented by Harder – were originally convicted of murder but were eventually acquitted in June 1991 after two retrials.<ref name="Hunt">{{cite news |last1=Hunt |first1=Tom |title=Flashback: The umpire, the dominatrix, the falls, and the ill-timed visit |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/76969412/flashback-the-umpire-the-dominatrix-the-falls-and-the-illtimed-visit |work=Stuff |date=17 February 2016}}</ref> This is believed to be the only case in New Zealand legal history where two individuals have faced three murder trials and have been acquitted after the third. The second jury was unable to reach a verdict, while the third jury accepted the defence claim that Plumley-Walker was already dead when Chignell and Walker threw his body off the Falls, Plumley-Walker having died accidentally during a "punishment" session. Harder published a book about the case, ''Mercy, Mistress, Mercy''.<br />
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===2003 assault charge===<br />
In 2003, Harder pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting fellow lawyer Barry Hart in an Auckland courtroom scuffle. His defence was that his use of the prescription [[Anti-obesity medication|weight-loss medication]] [[Duromine]] had affected his temperament. Harder was [[Discharge (sentence)#New Zealand|discharged without conviction]] after offering to pay court costs and making a donation to charity.<ref name="Gower">{{cite news |last1=Gower |first1=Patrick |title=Top lawyer escapes conviction over courtroom scuffle |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/top-lawyer-escapes-conviction-over-courtroom-scuffle/62RQAAI6OF5A3KQAAHUXU6RCYA |access-date=3 September 2024 |work=NZ Herald |date=5 November 2003 |language=en-NZ}}</ref><br />
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===2006 disbarment===<br />
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In 2006, Harder was struck off New Zealand's law practitioners' roll by the Law Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal for several offences, including taking a client to a brothel and making him simulate the sexual violence he had been charged with committing; swearing at the client and drinking alcohol while taking instructions; sexual harassment and threatening clients.<ref name="TVNZ_659041">{{cite web |url=http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/423466/659041 |title=Lawyer struck off over raft of charges |date=10 February 2006 |work=[[Television New Zealand]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060215182520/https://www.tvnz.co.nz/view/page/423466/659041|archive-date=15 February 2006}}</ref> In 2008, he applied to be reinstated to the roll of barristers and solicitors but eventually withdrew his application.<ref>{{cite news |title=Harder drops bid to practise law again |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/harder-drops-bid-to-practise-law-again/CNPILDCXUFBNXSLGG3Z6WHB75I/ |work=NZ Herald |date=26 January 2008 |language=en-NZ}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Lawyers line up for and against Harder's reinstatement |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/263994/Lawyers-line-up-for-and-against-Harders-reinstatement |work=Stuff |date=31 January 2009}}</ref><br />
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==Post-disbarment career==<br />
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===Tonga===<br />
In 2007, Harder was controversially permitted to practise law in [[Tonga]] to defend people charged in relation to the 2006 [[Nukuʻalofa|Nuku{{Okina}}alofa]] riots, despite still being struck off in New Zealand.<ref name="Changed" /><br />
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===Film work===<br />
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In October 2016, it was announced that [[TVNZ]] was making a dramatization of the Peter Plumley-Walker case entitled ''Mistress, Mercy'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Mistress, Mercy |url=https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/mistress-mercy |website=TVNZ |access-date=3 September 2024}}</ref> in which Harder was portrayed by actor Gavin Rutherford. Harder declined to participate in this production, saying the screenplay omitted critical details and was overly sympathetic to defendant Renee Chignell. Instead, Harder agreed to play himself in a separate feature-length film about the case, directed by Ken Khan.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/99927464/defence-lawyer-to-star-in-film-about-peter-plumleywalkers-bondage-death|work=Stuff|title = Defence lawyer to star in film about Peter Plumley-Walker's bondage death|date = 16 December 2017}}</ref><ref name="Hurley">{{cite news |last1=Hurley |first1=Bevan |title=Teen dominatrix Renee Chignell paid as consultant on $1.1m Plumley-Walker doco |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/98903542/teen-dominatrix-renee-chignell-paid-as-consultant-on-11m-plumleywalker-doco |work=Stuff |date=19 November 2017}}</ref> ({{As of|2025}}, Khan's film, entitled ''The Plumley-Walker Murder Trials'', has not been released.)<br />
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===Pike River Mine disaster campaign===<br />
Harder has been involved in advocacy for the families of victims of 2010's [[Pike River Mine disaster]], in which 29 miners lost their lives.<ref name="Walton">{{cite news |last1=Walton |first1=Steven |title=Law Society considering complaint about 'unlawful' deal with Pike River families |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/123485166/law-society-considering-complaint-about-unlawful-deal-with-pike-river-families |work=Stuff |date=23 November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Campbell |first1=John |author1-link=John Campbell (broadcaster) |title=Buried Truth |url=https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/02/10/john-campbell-why-the-pike-river-tragedy-wont-be-laid-to-rest/ |access-date=3 September 2024 |work=1News |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Fisher">{{cite news |last1=Fisher |first1=David |title='He’s been sent to us by God': Disgraced lawyer Chris Harder and his remarkable quest for Pike River justice |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/pike-river-struck-off-lawyer-christopher-harders-obsessive-campaign-for-justice/EQ2XSXNVDVGZPEGRUIZ7XEDNSQ/ |work=NZ Herald |date=6 January 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240106174813/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/pike-river-struck-off-lawyer-christopher-harders-obsessive-campaign-for-justice/EQ2XSXNVDVGZPEGRUIZ7XEDNSQ/|archive-date=6 January 2024|language=en-NZ}}</ref><br />
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==Published books==<br />
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* ''The Guns of Lautoka'' (Sunshine Press, 1988). {{ISBN|9780959790108}}<br />
* ''Mercy Mistress Mercy: The Plumley Walker Saga'' (Harper Collins, 1991). {{ISBN|9781869500641}}<br />
* ''Through the Legal Looking Glass'' (Howling at the Moon, 2002). {{ISBN|9780958205498}}<br />
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== References ==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070821193421/http://home.xtra.co.nz/hosts/christopher/ Official web site] (archived)<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Harder, Christopher}}<br />
[[Category:1948 births]]<br />
[[Category:Living people]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century New Zealand lawyers]]<br />
[[Category:21st-century New Zealand lawyers]]</div>imported>Srich32977