A hired hitman has been jailed for 13 years for his role in a vicious home invasion that put three people in hospital and allegedly earned him $500.
Illya Monty Waipouri, aged 32, of Otara, had admitted taking part in a raid on the home of a Manurewa man last Labour Weekend to carry out a "kneecapping" contract allegedly paid for by the man's ex-wife.
The victims, Robert Rogers, 54, his new partner, Lorraine McEwen, 56, and her son, Rodney McEwen, 34, were subjected to a night of terrifying violence as intruders inflicted injuries so severe that veteran plastic surgeons were left reeling.
Sentencing Waipouri in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, Justice Anderson told him the crime was of a type seldom seen in New Zealand courts. "It was conceived in wickedness and carried out in ruthless brutality. You are the ringleader of that outrage."
The weapons included a car jack used to smash Mr Rogers' face.
Justice Anderson said Waipouri was lucky not to be facing a murder charge.
"No doubt he [Mr Rogers] was on the knife-edge of death."
Patricia Mahutoto, 52, the woman alleged to have hired Waipouri, is facing a High Court trial in July, along with three men accused of taking part in the home invasion, Peter Matahaere, Christopher Hereora and Jay Wallace.
Justice Anderson - concerned that the co-accused should get a fair trial - allowed publication of their identities but emphasised that the submissions of lawyers were not admissible in respect of the alleged co-offenders.
Waipouri went through a depositions hearing with the four co-accused, but pleaded guilty ahead of the trial to one count each of aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery and two of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Crown Solicitor Simon Moore said Waipouri was a relative of Mahutoto, Mr Rogers' former wife.
Deeply resentful of Mr Rogers' new partner, she is alleged to have sought someone to "break Robbie's legs for a thousand bucks."
Waipouri said Mahutoto instructed him that Mr Rogers and Mrs McEwen were to be "done over" and Mr Rogers' kneecaps smashed.
He was told there would be $40,000 in cash in the house, and he would be paid $500.
The Crown said Waipouri's exact involvement that night might never be known, but he was responsible for the plan, the recruitment and the execution.
Waipouri, a Ngatoa gang member, had been raised as a ward of the state and involved with gangs since age 14.
A habitual burglar with 103 convictions for offences including arson and wounding with intent, he was on High Court bail at the time of the home invasion.
Waipouri told police that events that night did not go "according to plan." Through his lawyer, he argued that the injuries meted out were not supposed to occur.
Detective Sergeant Neil Grimstone said he was pleased by the lengthy sentence. "But it is of little value to the victims, who have, in effect, had a life sentence imposed on them by this scumbag."
Mr Rogers was disfigured for life, with an impaired sense of smell, vision, cognition and ability to learn. Part of Mrs McEwen's face had to be rebuilt with titanium plates. She and Mr Rogers suffer from a cluster of symptoms caused by head injury and from post-traumatic stress.
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