Mongrel Mob boss handed kidnapped woman with words 'parcel delivered', court hears

TRIAL: Three Mongrel Mob members are on trial for kidnapping a young woman who failed to repay a drug debt for methamphetamine. PHOTO/FILE.

"Parcel delivered" is the message two Mongrel Mob members gave their leader as they handed over a woman they had kidnapped for failing to repay a drug debt, a court has heard.

A trio of Mongrel Mob members are standing trial in the Napier District Court this week accused of kidnapping and sexually violating a woman who owed a former president of the gang's Aotearoa chapter $800 for methamphetamine he had supplied her.

Alexander Tamati, Neil Angus Benson and Hagen Taraiwa Wiremu Henare each pleaded not guilty to four counts of unlawful sexual connection, two each of kidnapping and aggravated assault and one each of assault on a female, assault with a blunt instrument and threatening to kill or do grievous bodily harm.

Crown prosecutor Steve Manning opened the Crown's case by telling the jury the complainant, a woman then aged 19 years old who knew all three accused, had been supplied methamphetamine by Tamati during the first half of 2016.

Tamati, also known as "Sandy", pleaded guilty to charges of supplying methamphetamine and possessing utensils for the Class A drug at the start of the trial yesterday.

Mr Manning said the woman couldn't repay the 60-year-old and, after she evaded him for some months, he enlisted the services of Benson and Henare who kidnapped her in the early hours of November 26, 2016.

In a string of Facebook messages read in court, the jury heard Tamati and the complainant discussing "the bill"; him telling her to come see him and "work it off".

The complainant told the court she woke up to Henare standing over her; telling her she had an appointment and that he and Benson would carry her there if they had to.

"They then drove her to the house then occupied by Mr Tamati and essentially handed her to him, one of them with the words 'parcel delivered'," Mr Manning said.

The Crown alleged she was taken to a small sitting room occupied by Tamati who then assaulted and sexually violated her.

In a DVD interview the complainant said Tamati threatened her with scissors, tapping them on her head as he told her he should cut her hair off and stab her.

She found a chance to escape when he fell asleep, but left the room only to be escorted back by the other defendants, who told her they couldn't take her home until they heard it from him, she said.

"They were sitting in the room next door making sure that if I left the room they were going to take me back in there anyway."

Benson and Henare, both 28 years old, were charged as parties to the alleged offending that happened in the room.

The complainant told the jury the pair held her down in the car as they drove her to Tamati, repeatedly telling her it was going to be okay.

She cried as she described Benson as "like a brother" to her, saying "There wasn't anything I wouldn't do for him."

The trial before Judge Tony Adeane is expected to last three to four days.