Christchurch eye surgeon Ian Dallison who attempted to murder landlord granted parole
Doctor Ian William Dallison has been sentenced in the High Court after previously pleading guilty to the attempted murder of Alberto Ceccerelli.
Photo:
The Press
A Christchurch eye surgeon who
attempted to murder
his former business landlord has been granted parole.
After being declared bankrupt on 4 August, 2022, prominent doctor Ian Dallison stormed into the Lyttleton home of Alberto Ceccarelli and attempted to shoot him while he was eating dinner with his wife, Antje Schmidt.
Dallison was jailed for almost seven years in 2023.
A Parole Board spokesperson confirmed Dallison appeared before the board on Monday and was granted release.
He will be released next month.
It was earlier revealed Dallison had been in an
intimate relationship
with District Court Judge Jane Farish.
Farish was Dallison's girlfriend at the time of his attack on Ceccarelli and Schmidt.
Dallison was armed with nine guns and 167 rounds of ammunition when he drove to the couple's home in St Davids Street, according to the police summary of facts.
He had been declared bankrupt in proceedings brought by Ceccarelli, to whom he owed a large amount of money for failing to pay the rent at his commercial building.
He fired a Ruger semi-automatic pistol at Ceccarelli, with the bullet narrowly missing the businessman's head, lodging itself in the doorframe over his right shoulder.
Ceccarelli and Schmidt then rushed Dallison, sparking a violent scuffle, during which Dallison gouged Ceccarelli's eye.
The Supreme Court earlier ruled media could report the relationship between Dallison and Farish.
The court said it was accepted Farish knew nothing of Dallison's plans and had no involvement in the offending.
She knew Dallison for years before beginning a romantic relationship with him in 2012.
They maintained separate homes throughout the relationship and she had only stayed at his house once in the year before his rampage.
At sentencing Crown prosecutor Claire Hislop read victim impact statements on behalf of Alberto Ceccarelli and his wife Antje Schmidt, who recounted the horror of having their home invaded by an armed Dallison on 4 August, 2022.
"Our security and our home have been severely violated."
Dallison entered Ceccareli's Lyttleton home at about 7.40pm while he and Schmidt were eating dinner.
The court heard how Dallison fired a Ruger semi-automatic pistol, the bullet narrowly missing Ceccerelli's head, lodging itself in the doorframe over his right shoulder.
Both Ceccarelli and Schmidt then rushed Dallison, sparking a violent scuffle.
According to Ceccarelli's victim impact statement, he was still feeling the effects of the fracas where Dallison gouged his eye.
"Previously I had no issues reading brief things, like an email for instance, but now I can only read a few lines at a time and have to stop.
"When I'm working in the day, the daylight is too bright and it offends my sight so I have to block the sunlight out by having my blinds pulled down.
"I still suffer daily with headaches, which I have to use Panadol."
Ceccarelli said he felt "anxious" and admitted it was difficult to think about the future, in relation to the eventual release of Dallison.
Schmidt was drawn into the attack and struck several times on the back of the head by the butt of Dallison's gun.
"I have difficulties falling and staying asleep due to the pain of my head injuries and anxiety. It is agony to put my head down on a pillow to sleep.
"I have difficulty of concentration, feeling constantly distressed and on edge, feeling lightheaded and nauseous, constant headaches. I become very jumpy, tense and jittery."
The court heard Dallison was a commercial tenant of Ceccarelli, the former owing the latter's trust about $250,000 in unpaid rent and expenses.
Defence lawyer Paul Borich conceded Dallison worked himself into a state on the day of the attack and behaved "irrationally" after being declared bankrupt hours earlier.
"His behaviour on this day was extreme - he did not look to others for help, nor did he take what advice had been given.
"Being bankrupt was the final straw and he completely and totally lost the plot."
Justice Andru Isac however told the court there was a high degree of premeditation and his actions were "inexplicable".
He said Dallison wrongly blamed Ceccarelli for his own financial woes and had established a pattern of not dealing with civil disputes reasonably.
"You don't take kindly to anyone with whom you have a financial dispute, be it former spouses, family or business partners.
"In such situations you have said to become arrogant, irrational, angry and uncompromising, some might describe such behaviour as entitled."
Isac said unlike many defendants who appear in front of the court, Dallison had lived "a privileged life".
He also pointed to other factors such as the Canterbury earthquakes and diminishing demand for laser treatment resulted in falling profitability of Dallison's practice.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Tenant quits lease after apartment hits almost 44C, bond refunded
By Tracy Neal, Open Justice multimedia journalist of File pic Photo: 123RF A tenant says the sweltering heat inside their apartment reached temperatures well into the 40s - ruining a laptop, killing pot plants and requiring medicines to be stored in a car where it was cooler. Now the tenant has been allowed to break a year-long lease and get their bond back, a month after moving in. It comes after NZME reported concerns this year that tens of thousands of Auckland families would suffer in overheating terraced houses and vulnerable people could risk "dying of heatstroke" unless construction designs changed. That story described how large windows, a lack of eaves or other shade, no consideration of a property's direction towards the sun and poor ventilation were causing overheating in old and new builds. In this instance, the tenant, whose name was suppressed after a Tenancy Tribunal hearing, said the excessive heat inside their one-bedroom, sixth-floor apartment was evident soon after moving in. The building, in an undisclosed location, was managed by a body corporate, but the landlord remained liable to the tenant under the rental agreement and by law. On a day in March this year, the tenant recorded the temperature inside the east-facing unit at 43.6C before midday. The next day, the mercury had risen to 38.5C before 9am, even with the living room window open and after the air conditioning had been running, according to evidence presented to the tribunal. The tenant said it was difficult to sleep in such heat, pot plants didn't last beyond a day and that it was not safe storing a co-tenant's medication inside the apartment, so they left it in a car. The tenant said the heat had caused the battery in a laptop to expand, damaging the computer beyond repair. The tenant also said the windows in the apartment did not open wide enough to allow sufficient draught, but the landlord disagreed and suggested the tenants "had not been using them properly". The landlord also took temperature readings in the living room with the curtains closed and then open. The afternoon temperatures, 26.4C and 28.3C were high, the tribunal said, but not as high as those recorded by the tenant. The landlord also produced a Healthy Homes Standards report showing that the unit complied with the applicable ventilation requirements. In a recently released decision, the tribunal ordered the $2440 bond be returned to the tenant, plus partial reimbursement of electricity charges it cost to run air conditioning, over and above standard power charges. The tenant was surprised to receive two invoices totalling $96 to cover the cost of running the heat pump/air conditioning unit while they lived there. However, the landlord said they had explained at the start of the tenancy that the power supply to the air conditioning unit, which was based on usage only, was controlled by the body corporate and invoiced separately. The tenant paid the invoices but claimed there was insufficient evidence to support the calculation of the charges or to prove the usage claimed was exclusively attributable to themselves. The landlord produced spreadsheets provided by the body corporate, which they claimed set out how the charges were calculated. The tribunal said that based on the evidence, it accepted the tenant's submission that the method of calculation was unclear, but there was no dispute that the tenant had used the air conditioning unit and was therefore liable for some of the costs claimed. The tenant's application to reduce the fixed term was dismissed. Agreement was instead reached between the tenant and landlord to end it earlier than the contracted date. A new tenancy began on 11 April, the tribunal said. The New Zealand Property Investors Federation told NZME that investors should do due diligence on any property they buy, especially in light of recent media coverage about hot townhouses. Advocacy manager Matt Ball said there was nothing in the tribunal's decision, or in general, to say that new townhouses would not make a good investment. He said there were opportunities for investors willing to do any necessary remedial work, such as installing ventilation or air conditioning. -This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .
RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
Police still following tips to find missing Christchurch woman after calling off formal search
The 79-year old called Elisabeth was last seen on Bartlett Street in Riccarton on Wednesday night. Photo: Supplied Police are still following tips from the public to find a missing 79-year-old after having called off the formal search on Friday. The woman, Elisabeth, disappeared after walking out of the Margaret Stoddart Retirement Village in Riccarton on Wednesday. She had been admitted that day for respite care. A spokesperson said the police were actively following up information from the public, but had not substantiated any sightings since Elisabeth was last seen on Wednesday. Elisabeth was wearing blue pants, a dark coloured long-sleeved top, black shoes and had distinctive long blonde/white hair. Anyone who sees Elisabeth should ring 111 immediately and use the reference number 250604/5465. Non-urgent information can be provided online here , using Update Report, and quoting the same reference number. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
15 hours ago
- RNZ News
Man charged for passenger's death after unreported crash
The crash on Maniatutu Road was not reported to police at the time. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller A driver has been charged after an unreported car crash in western Bay of Plenty led to the death of his passenger. The one-car crash on Maniatutu Road, at Pongakawa, happened at 8:45pm on Tuesday, 3 June. Police said the crash was not reported at the time, and after the crash the driver and his passengers made their own way to their addresses. However, at 4:30am, one passenger was found dead in his home by his flatmate and the driver. On Friday, a 40-year-old man was charged with dangerous driving causing death. He is due in Tauranga District Court on 12 June. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
