Sentencing — improperly interfering with dead human body — human corpse — human toes — Body Worlds exhibit — theft — Takamore v Clarke [2013] 2 NZLR 733 — Re Long [2017] NZHC 3263 — Crimes Act 1961, s 150(b). The defendant appeared for sentence after pleading guilty to one charge of improperly interfering with a dead human body and one of theft. He had attended an exhibition of human corpses that had been plastinated (put through a process that effectively turned them into plastic). He took two toes from one of the corpses, and posted about doing so on Instagram. He later returned the toes to police, and they were reattached to the corpse. The Court considered the offending to have been impulsive rather than premeditated. The Court then expressed concern over the charges the defendant faced: if the toes were to be classed as human remains it was illogical to charge the defendant with theft, as there is no property right to human remains. Alternatively if the toes were not human, because of the plastination process, then he could not be said to have interfered with human remains. The prosecution elected to continue with the charge of interfering with a dead human body, so the Court withdrew the defendant's guilty plea to the theft charge. The Court observed that a conviction for interfering with a dead human body would be out of proportion to the gravity of the offending, given that the bodies had been posed and displayed. The Court discharged the defendant without conviction. Judgment Date: 26 September 2018.