A 53-year-old Canterbury farmer has been found guilty of 14 charges of threatening to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to the Prime Minister and government officials.

The jury took just over two hours to reach its verdicts on 14 charges against Mark Stafford Feary in Christchurch District Court on Tuesday.

The Oxford farmer and father of two teenaged children, arrested in February last year after a flurry of faxes and letters  including one to the Prime Minister reading: “It’s killing time”, defended himself in court after years of dispute with the Commissioner of Crown Land over farmland.

The judge remanded Feary on bail to July 22 for sentence.