Mob prospect claims self-defence at gang attack trial
A Mongrel Mob prospect says he was acting in self-defence when he struck a former gang member in the back of the head three times with the back end of a tomahawk.
Clinton Benjamin Simon, 31, said he and three others had only gone to the house of the former Mongrel Mob Notorious chapter president at his home in New Brighton to “visit him and have beers with my bros”.
The man had earlier resigned from the Mob and handed back his patch.
Simon said when the four arrived outside the house he gave a friendly Mob greeting, but the former president emerged from the house with scissors in one hand and a tomahawk in the other.
“He threatened to kill us. He said to the other people at the house, ‘Go get my guns,’ and then he threw the scissors in my direction,” Clinton said in evidence on the fifth day of the Christchurch District Court trial before Judge Alistair Garland and a jury.
Simon is one of three Mongrel Mob members or associates on trial. He and Tamati Jon Hetariki, 35, and Kyle Peter Livesey, 29, all 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 trial began last Thursday.
The Crown has called evidence from 17 witnesses before closing the presentation of its case today.
Defence counsel for Simon, Lee Lee Heah, told the jury they must put themselves into the mind of her client at the time of the incident on December 4, 2014. People were justified in using reasonable force in the defence of themselves or another.
Simon said the man’s son had approached him with a pole, and he warded him off with a fence paling. He then went to help Hetariki when he saw him struggling with the ex-member who was holding a tomahawk.
The alleged victim then swung the axe at Simon’s head but he dodged the blow and he levered it out of the other man’s hands. The man continued trying to get his face, or get the axe, and he deflected him three times and hit him with the flat end of the axe.
“He fell to the ground and I noticed a big cut on the back of his head and blood,” said Simon. “I freaked out and dropped the axe.”
The group then left.
Simon said he had been shocked and feared for his life. If he had not dodged the blow from the axe, he believed he would be dead. “He was attacking me. He had threatened to kill me. All I could think of was the safety of me and my bros.”
Crown prosecutor Anselm Williams put it to Simon that the members had wanted to teach the man a lesson for leaving the Mongrel Mob.
He accused Simon of making up the story of self-defence when he and his gang associates were the aggressors. They had gone to the man’s house with the intention of doing him harm and damaging his property.
The trial is continuing.
Category: Focus
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