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Home / New Zealand

Alleged Hamilton kidnapping: 'I've never had that feeling of waiting for death to happen'

Belinda Feek
By Belinda Feek
Open Justice multimedia journalist, Waikato·NZ Herald·
6 Apr, 2022 03:17 AM5 mins to read

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The group were allegedly detained and assaulted at this house on Rotokauri Rd, Hamilton, on January 17 last year. Photo / Google Maps

The group were allegedly detained and assaulted at this house on Rotokauri Rd, Hamilton, on January 17 last year. Photo / Google Maps

A woman who claims she was part of a hostage incident in Hamilton has told a jury she was waiting to die as one of her alleged kidnappers stood behind her swinging a hammer violently around the room.

Brittany Jordan told a jury of three men and nine women in the High Court at Hamilton this afternoon that she had never "had the feeling of waiting for death to happen" before.

"Your whole body just tenses up and you're waiting."

She said they had just pulled up to a Rotokauri property to meet up with their friend overnight on January 17, when instead, they were confronted by three strangers.

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Hamilton man Troy Mudford, together with Shannon Jenifer Avery, 39, of Brightwater in Nelson and Maxine Danielle McWaters, 30, of Matamata are on trial defending four charges of aggravated robbery relating to the alleged theft of wallets, cellphones and clothing.

They also each deny four charges of kidnapping, while Avery faces an additional charge of assault using a knife as a weapon.

Mudford, 21, faces two additional charges of assault using a hammer as a weapon, threatening to kill, injuring with intent to injure, and demands with menaces property belonging to another victim with intent to steal it.

They are accused of kidnapping, assaulting, robbing, and ordering two of them to strip and hug after a bungled cannabis purchase.

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Jordan described how the group accosted them when they arrived back at a Rotokauri property late on the night of January 16.

She said the accused surrounded the car they were in, stole their belongings, and punched the two men a couple of times before leading them inside.

They were taken into a room and Jordan testified how the male was threatening to kill them the whole time.

"They told us all to line up against the wall, cross our legs and put items of clothing over our heads.

"He was threatening to kill us the whole time. I heard it a million times," she said.

"I thought everything is going to go black now. I'm going to die."

She explained how she pleaded with Mudford that she needed to get home as she was a Mum to a four-year-old girl, but how he wasn't impressed with that comment.

"He said 'I f*cken hate it when people bring their kids into this. Your daughter is never going to see her mum and dad again."

She said they were sitting there waiting for a "smack to the head".

"He was pacing behind us ... he had been walking around swinging his weapon too, you know."

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'GPS data from EM bail device tracks accused movements'

Earlier, Nigel Jacobs, a senior electronically-monitoring technical adviser with the Department of Corrections took to the stand outlining Mudford's movements that weekend.

Mudford was subject to electronic monitoring by the Department of Corrections during the time of the alleged incident.

Jacobs said that as Mudford had an ankle bracelet, or "tracker", on him they were able to monitor his movements that weekend.

It showed that between 6.38pm and 6.50pm he leaves an Ellis St house and went to the Rotokauri Rd property and remained there until 7.37pm.

It is then he leaves and heads to a Whatawhata Rd house before returning to Ellis St at 8.15pm.

At 9.49pm, his tracker shows him heading back to Rotokauri Rd again and remaining there until 11.07pm before leaving and going back to Ellis St until 2.37am.

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However, it's not until 4.07am, when he leaves a city park, that he is registered as heading back to Rotokauri Rd.

Jacobs said the GPS data shows Mudford being there until around 5am when he heads to Clasper's parents' property at Holloway St before returning back to Rotokauri Rd, arriving at 5.40am.

He then stays there until 7.43am before heading back to Ellis St and remaining there until 9am.

In questioning from Mudford's lawyer Charles Bean, Jacobs confirms that Mudford's device was not tampered with during that period.

He also put to Jacobs that if it was suggested that Mudford was at the Rotokauri Rd property between midnight and 5am that they would be wrong, Jacobs replies, "according to the data, that is correct".

Avery's counsel Gerard Walsh tried to further define Mudford's time of arrival at the Rotokauri Rd house, with Jacobs confirming he was near the Hamilton Zoo - about two minutes away - at 4.23am.

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'We were held hostage, beaten and robbed'

All of the charges relate to an alleged incident in Hamilton between January 16 and 17, 2021.

In her opening submission to the jury of three men and nine women, Crown prosecutor Bernadette Vaili said the accused wanted money "and were out to get it any way they could".

On January 16, the four complainants, Gavin Clasper, together with his girlfriend, and two others organised to buy some cannabis off a friend in exchange for Paysafe and top-up cards.

While initially being successful in buying a "$50 bag" from their friend "Rome" at a Rotokauri Rd house about midnight, the group went back to the property later that night to drop off the cards and ran into the accused.

There they would allegedly be punched, kicked and forced to sit on their hands facing a wall.

Clasper and his friend were asked to strip and then forced to hug, Vaili told the jury.

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