Mongrel Mob attack followed resignation, says Crown
After a senior member of the Notorious Mongrel Mob resigned, gang members went to his New Brighton home, bashed him, damaged his car and motorbike, and assaulted his teenage sons, the Crown alleges.
The fracas ended with serious injuries for the Notorious member who had handed back his patch, and left three members or prospects on trial on the Christchurch District Court on 13 charges.
Before the court are Tamati Jon Hetariki, 35, Kyle Peter Livesey, 29, and Clinton Benjamin Simon, 31.
All three deny charges of wounding the ex-gang member with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and assaulting his two sons using a fence paling, baton, or bar, as weapons.
Livesey and Simon deny damaging the man’s car, but Hetariki admits the intentional damage charge.
Hetariki and Simon deny damaging the man’s motorcycle, but Livesey pleaded guilty to that charge as the week-long trial began today.
The Crown will call evidence from 17 witnesses.
The victim said he had been president of the Notorious chapter in Christchurch. He knew Hetariki as a member and Livesey as a gang prospect. He told the court of “differences” because he had come from Auckland.
He handed in his patch in mid-2014 because he felt like everything was a façade. “We were told it was all about family and stuff like that, but working with the Salvation Army and like that…it was just a façade.”
The gang was involved “in what we were trying to steer away from”, he said. “Family is everything to me,” said the father-of-five.
Crown prosecutor Anselm Williams said the man’s resignation had caused “divisions” between him and several members of the Timaru-based Notorious chapter of the gang.
The three defendants drove from Timaru to the man’s home in New Brighton on December 4 intending to confront him about his decision to leave the gang, Mr Williams said. The man’s ex-partner shouted a warning as the four Mob members ran up the driveway.
Hetariki had a bat and smashed the front and back windscreens of the man’s car, and Livesey damaged his motorcycle with a baton.
The man’s ex-partner threw a tomahawk at the attackers, but missed, said Mr Williams.
The boys tried to protect their father and were assaulted.
The ex-gang member was then struck by Hetariki with the bat and by Simon, who struck him in the back of the head several times with a tomahawk. He received a gash in his arm as he tried to protect himself. The victim lost consciousness and when he came to all three of the accused were hitting him around the head and body.
He saw his son grapple with an attacker to stop him hitting the father with the axe.
The boys’ mother, the man’s ex-partner, tried to lure the attackers away by smashing the rear window of their car. They then left the scene and the car was stopped by police north of Ashburton about 90min later. The car had a broken rear window, and Hetariki and Livesey were injured. Simon and another man were in the car. A rusty claw hammer and a bat were found in the car.
The man was hospitalised and had surgery on his injuries. He had cuts to the back of his head, a fractured eye socket, a gash to his left arm, and leg injuries. The sons had red marks and bruising.
Defence counsel for Livesey, Kiran Paima urged the jury to keep an open mind until they had heard all the evidence because there was “another side to it”. Until they heard all the evidence “you can’t be sure about anything at all”, he said.
The trial, before Judge Alistair Garland and a jury, is continuing.
Category: Focus
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Connect
Connect with us via: