Kidnap victim chewed his way to freedom

Alleged Mongrel Mob kidnap victim Dawson Reihana has told how he chewed his way to freedom after being bashed, punched and stomped for hours.

The 35-year-old told his story on a DVD recorded at Christchurch Hospital as he lay heavily bandaged in bed hours after he said he escaped from captivity at a Mob address in Bowenvale Avenue, early on August 9, 2015.

The DVD was played on the third day of the trial of seven men with links to the Aotearoa chapter of the Mongrel Mob in the High Court at Christchurch. Reihana, who was also giving evidence to the trial by closed circuit television, has links with the gang’s Notorious chapter, the Crown says.

He told the police in the detailed DVD interview that two gang members had taken his cellphones and had contacted his friends demanding money and drugs for his release. He said he was hurt that people contacted had not tried to get him out, during a kidnap and beating that went on for about 16 hours.

Before the court, after pleading not guilty to all charges, are Matthew Joshua Mulvey, 35, Leon Delshannon Turner, 41, a builder, Peter Damian Gilbert, 46, a concrete worker, August Keefe, 57, Mathew James Rowe, 41, a bricklayer, Jason Phillip Reweti, 35, a labourer, and Dylan Raymond Shannon Corbin, 27.

All are charged with kidnapping Reihana. Mulvey, Turner, and Gilbert are charged with wounding him with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. All except Keefe are charged with injuring him with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The trial before Justice Cameron Mander and a jury is expected to last more than two weeks.

Reihana said he was beaten with hammers and knuckledusters for hours, punched and stomped. His hands and ankles were tied with what he called Sellotape or plastic.

Eventually, about 3am, the beating stopped and people left him to sleep. The man left to guard him – the Crown says it was Reweti – went to sleep on the other side of the room.

Reihana said he chewed on the tape wound around his wrists. He opened a drawer nearby and put the chewed-off pieces in there so they would not be noticed if people came back. He worked for an hour to get his eyes open because they were swollen shut from the beating.

When he got free, he noticed a wire leading onto a bed next to him. He pulled it quietly and found there was a cellphone on the end of it.

He called 111 twice. The police could not find him using a GPS system, but they got him to describe the route he had taken while he was driven to the address, which was the second place where he had been detained and attacked.

They then headed into the 1km-radius area where the cellphone was located, and surrounded a known Mob house in Bowenvale Avenue before Reihana made his way out, to be taken to hospital by ambulance.

Reihana told of being invited to an address in Ajax Street, Shirley, the previous day by Mulvey. They had coffee and talked and then Mulvey, Turner, and Gilbert attacked him with hammers. He was bound with tape, beaten by Keefe with knuckledusters at the second address, particularly around the eyes, and stomped on the head by Corbin.

Threats were made to his partner and family, and friends were contacted by Turner and Mulvey to pay money or provide drugs to get his freedom. He was struck on the head with the claw end of a hammer.

At one stage he was taken around town in a van, still bound, to show where his friends’ houses were. He only showed them houses where there was no money, he said.

Reihana told the trial: “They attacked me for hours. They threatened disgusting things to my girlfriend, or wanting money from my friends, and wanting anything I had.

“There were so many of them, I was overwhelmed.”

Afternoon update:

Cross-examined by Mulvey’s defence counsel Tony Garrett, Reihana said had been “straight” for nine months at the time of the incident, and he had not gone to the Shirley address to buy synthetic cannabis. He also denied that he was there because he was involved in debt recovery. He was fighting for his children who had been put in Child, Youth and Family care.

Questioned about why there had been no fracture of his knee where he said he was struck with a hammer by Mulvey, Reihana said there had been marks at the back of his knee. “It’s not my fault that my bones hold together pretty well.”

He said that administration of morphine and other drugs in hospital, before he gave his DVD interview to the police, “might have had an effect on my over-exaggeration of certain events”.

He told the court: “It felt like I was in a bit of a cloud and I was floating and dreaming. The morphine was the first drug I had had in my body for a long time. It got me pretty good.”

Cross-examined by Tony Greig for Turner, Reihana said that he had only just heard that three people had recently pleaded guilty to charges relating to what happened to him. He wanted to have a think about that, and get everything right. He said he might have exaggerated some things in the DVD interview “because of my injuries and the drugs I was on”. His head was definitely hit with three hammers, but he was thinking about whether Turner was one of those doing that.

“Everybody looks the same when you are on the ground tied up,” Reihana said.

Questioned by Rupert Glover for Gilbert and Keefe, Reihana conceded that his answers to the police may not have been accurate because of his “dream-like state”.

The trial is continuing.

Tags: assault, grievous bodily harm, injuring, kidnap

Category: News