A Bad Time And Place To Be Autistic

Troubled Christchurch:

Two police officers are being investigated after an autistic man who became the "face of looting" was allegedly beaten up while in custody.

Cornelius Arie Smith-Voorkamp, 25, was arrested for stealing two light bulbs and an antique light fitting from a damaged home after last month's devastating Christchurch earthquake.

He has Asperger's syndrome which compels him to take light fixtures.

When he was arrested he was left with a black eye after two police officers beat him up, his lawyer Simon Buckingham told the New Zealand Herald yesterday.

"He had no intention of committing a crime, but for years he had been going around abandoned buildings, asking permission to go in and going and getting the fittings because he has a real fixation with being a sparkie."

"There was also a bit of an issue with the army poking their head in and taking the mick a little bit out of the looter, but that was just verbal."

Buckingham said Smith-Voorkamp was "extremely remorseful" for what he did but at the time he did not understand what he was doing was against the law.