Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
A gang member who violently assaulted his partner and a Good Samaritan who tried to help, has had his sentence reduced.
Poutawa Kireka gained attention worldwide in 2019 after finding it difficult to get a job with "notorious'' tattooed across his lower face.
He was originally sentenced to 10 years and 10 months' imprisonment, with a minimum of three years and 10 months, after pleading guilty to charges related to kidnapping, assault, methamphetamine and cannabis, as well as smuggling drugs and a cellphone into prison.
Now, his sentence has been reduced to eight years and two months' imprisonment, with no minimum period.
Kireka had served earlier prison sentences for violent offending, and was released from his most recent stint in 2017. Following his release, he quit alcohol and drugs, and established his own fitness business.
But he returned to cannabis, methamphetamine and steroid abuse, and was convicted of family violence in late 2019.
On the evening of 11 September, 2022, Kireka held his partner against her will for some 30 seconds in the forecourt of a Napier petrol station and was charged for assault in a family relationship.
Then, early on the morning of 25 September, Kireka caught and forced her into his car after she sought refuge at the Napier Police Station, which was unstaffed.
CCTV footage showed his partner injured and covered in blood, as was Kireka's clothing. Kireka drove them away until stopping on Napier's Marine Parade after crashing into the kerb of a roundabout, damaging the car.
His partner escaped and flagged down a passing motorist, an elderly man travelling with his wife. She told them Kireka was chasing her, and was a gang member.
The couple agreed to take her home to Clive, but they drove past Kireka still in his car at the side of the road, and he sped after them, overtook their vehicle and forced it to a stop by blocking the road.
Kireka then opened the driver's door and punched the man in the face multiple times "with significant force", causing a brain bleed, bruising, fractures and a deep wound and cuts to the man's lips and neck.
The man managed to drive away but, due to his condition, crashed and extensively damaged his car.
Kireka's partner again ran away but he chased her down, eventually forcing her back into his car. They drove to Clive, where police found them.
Police also found drugs at the address.
In custody at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison, Kireka used a mobile phone he kept hidden in his prison cell to source methamphetamine and cannabis outside the prison and arrange for the drugs to be smuggled in.
Kireka's lawyer, Ron Mansfield KC, argued the original judge erred by applying an excessive starting point for his sentence, and failed to make appropriate reductions for personal mitigating factors: his background, efforts at and prospects of rehabilitation, and remorse.
Justices Mallon, Fitzgerald and Jagose partially agreed, finding Judge Collins used a "disproportionately high" starting point.
"The Judge's 13-year starting point also risked being crushing for Mr Kireka's rehabilitative efforts. Standing back, we consider a total starting point of 11 years appropriately captures the overall seriousness of Mr Kireka's offending, recognising the separate victims of Mr Kireka's intentional grievous injury and kidnapping offending, while also recognising that much of it was a single course of conduct."
However, they agreed Judge Collins was right to refuse to give any discount for remorse and rehabilitation.
"The Judge viewed the video apology and was entitled to form his view Mr Kireka was not actually sorry for the harm he caused his victims, rather than the position in which he found himself. Rehabilitation's "success" in Mr Kireka's case remains to be seen."