Former Mongrel Mob boss Alexander Tamati will have to spend at least five years in prison. Photo / File
Former Mongrel Mob boss Alexander Tamati will have to spend at least five years in prison. Photo / File
A former Mongrel Mob president who kidnapped a 19-year-old woman and forced her into "subservience" over a drug debt will spend at least five years behind bars.
Alexander Tamati, previously the president of the gang's Aotearoa chapter, stood trial the Napier District Court last year for enlisting two younger gangmembers to bring the teenager to him to "work it off".
In the early hours of November 26, 2016, she was held against her will in a sitting room where Tamati subjected her to threats, assaults and sexual violation.
Tamati's co-offenders Angus Benson and Hagen Taraiwa Wiremu Henare, jailed for two years three months and two years six months respectively in December, delivered her to Tamati with the message "parcel delivered".
Tamati was in March sentenced to 10 years in jail with a minimum period of imprisonment of five years.
His lawyer Russell Fairbrother QC filed an appeal against the five-year minimum set down by Judge Tony Adeane, saying it had not taken into account Tamati's remorse and his troubled upbringing.
Fairbrother's recommendation of parole being considered after three years was rejected, a Court of Appeal judgment released on Tuesday says.
The judgment said Tamati's offending against the woman involved "gratuitous violence" and abuse of a woman for his own sexual gratification.
"His conduct requires the strongest condemnation... Allowing Mr Tamati to be considered for parole after serving just three years and three months in prison would not adequately hold him accountable for the harm he did."
The judgment said five years minimum was necessary in order to protect the community from him, and outweighed Tamati's shows of remorse.
"In our assessment, the MPI imposed by Judge Adeane was warranted and constituted the least restrictive outcome that was reasonably available."
