Thousands of taxpayer dollars will be spent repairing the damage caused by a Hawke's Bay Regional Prison inmate who assaulted prison officers, smashed windows and set alight his own cell furnishings during three months in 2015.
Remand prisoner Elfender-Lee Harmer, 25, appeared before Judge Geoff Rea in the Napier District Court yesterday for sentencing after he assaulted four prison officers and damaged or completely destroyed nearly $10,000 worth of prison property.
Harmer was already serving time for burglary and assault when he was charged with six counts of intentional damage, four of assaulting a prison officer and one each of possessing an offensive weapon, arson, and intentional damage with reckless disregard.
Reparation costs totalling $9,319.80 were sought by the Crown but yesterday Judge Rea made no reparation order, citing the time Harmer was yet to serve and the "little likelihood" he would be available to make the repayments.
Harmer's offending began late morning on April 30, 2015 when he punched a prison officer in the chest after a short struggle between the pair as he stood in the door to prevent the officer locking it.
Relocated to another part of the prison, Harmer smashed two windows and broke a television, going on to threaten another prisoner with a 40cm piece of a metal window pane when he became frustrated the prisoner was using the communal phone.
Things escalated in September during a non-contact visit with his partner and two children aged 3 and 5 years old.
Half an hour into the visit a prison officer indicated his time was almost up and, when radioing for staff to assist with his relocation back to his cell, the officer heard loud banging coming from the booth.
Separated from his family by glass panels, Harmer was using a plastic chair to smash the window and continued to do so until the glass shattered; spraying over his partner and children who were cowering in the corner of the booth.
He then attempted to stab a prison officer, who was wearing a stab resistant vest, with a plastic knife before smashing more windows in the booth; the total number reaching 18.
One week after the outburst staff advised Harmer he would not be receiving visits due to his behaviour and he retaliated by breaking a toilet door off its hinges and using it as a battering ram, breaking an external yard door and using the hinges to break a window at the guard tower.
Following this he was relocated to another unit with cells that had slots in the doors to make it safer for staff to handle his behaviour.
He smashed more windows in this cell and when officers began to organise themselves to manage his rapidly deteriorating behaviour they were alerted to a fire in his cell.
He was seen ripping his mattress and throwing pieces out of the broken window as thick, black smoke engulfed the unit.
Officers initially had to withdraw from the corridor due to the smoke but eventually returned to remove Harmer from his cell as he was having difficulty breathing.
Yesterday Judge Rea sentenced him to a further two years and eight months' imprisonment, telling him he had a poor record and was a "very difficult" person to manage.
Harmer is not new the courts, having been jailed in 2012 for an unprovoked punch he threw at a teenage girl that left her blind in one eye.
In 2010 he smashed all 17 windows of a Flaxmere house belonging to an elderly man and just days later he was giving evidence in court against a prison officer who assaulted him.
The officer went on to be discharged without conviction after a hearing that revealed the confrontation was sparked by Harmer's unrelenting determination to use a prison phone.