A family member of the defendants in the Piopio home invasion case says his family was dragged through court unnecessarily

Father and son William and Shaun Burr were found not guilty on assault charges - after chopping off the tip of a teen burglar's finger - and punching and kicking him on the ground.

William's son, Hamish Burr, claims the pair did all they could to not badly hurt the burglar, whose finger was sliced when he refused to give up a knife he was holding.

He says the family acted appropriately.

Burr says if cops had been faced with the the situation - the intruder would have been shot.