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Home / New Zealand

'Cold, scared and helpless' - teen describes alleged police kidnapping

Sam Hurley
By Sam Hurley
NZ Herald Print Editor·NZ Herald·
9 Nov, 2017 12:00 AM6 mins to read

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Inspector Hurimoana Dennis and Sergeant Vaughan Perry during their trial in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Greg Bowker

Inspector Hurimoana Dennis and Sergeant Vaughan Perry during their trial in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Greg Bowker

A teenager says a high-ranking police inspector told him he would spend a minimum of 14 years in prison for a fabricated statutory rape charge, a court has heard.

The Auckland boy, now 19, alleges two police officers detained him, locked him in a prison cell, threatened him with a rape charge, and "deported" him to Australia to end his relationship with a 15-year-old girl in 2015.

Inspector Hurimoana Dennis, 52, and Sergeant Vaughan Perry, 45, are on trial in the High Court at Auckland before a jury and Justice Edwin Wylie charged with kidnapping the then 17-year-old.

The teenage boy's mother had filed a formal complaint with police about her son, alleging he was having a sexual relationship with a minor, but Detective Sergeant Neil Hilton decided against laying charges.

On May 5, 2015, Dennis, a family friend, organised a "mock arrest" for the teenage boy to scare him off the underage affair.

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Dennis, the police national Maori strategic adviser, had the teen taken to the Auckland Central Police Station, the court has heard.

The boy was processed as though he was being held in custody by Dennis and Perry, the duty custody sergeant.

Today the teenager has given his account from the witness stand of what happened.

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He told the court that after he arrived at the police station a uniformed Dennis walked into an interview room and said he'd "taken over the case".

"I was speechless at this point - I was shocked," the teen said.

"Behind Hurimoana was also my mother and my grandfather, and they came to the interview room as well. And the officer who took me there left, he was rather shocked as well.

"He told me he had taken over this case from Neil Hilton ... I knew that there was something very wrong - I was a bit afraid once he said that. I knew that there had been things planned but I was all unaware of it."

The teen said Dennis wanted him to end his relationship and offered him two choices.

"He said to me I could either go to Australia; or option two, he would take me downstairs and I'd be charged for statutory rape.

"At the time he said I'd serve a minimum of 14 years. At that point I was really scared."

At no time did Dennis read the teen his rights, the court heard.

Every New Zealand citizen when arrested is afforded the right to talk to a lawyer without delay, refuse to make a statement to police, be told why they are being questioned, detained, or arrested, be treated humanely, and be brought before a court as soon as possible.

"I was thinking at the time, 'what have I done wrong to actually deserve this?'" the teen said.

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The young man also received a "pat-down search" before being taken down to the holding cells by Dennis, the court heard.

"It was all cold, I walked behind him, he made a left turn ... I saw these bars, and right after it was this huge bench.

"I felt I had no other choice, I felt that if I didn't I was going to get charged for things. I didn't know why he was accusing me of these things."

The teen said another officer also began racially abusing him before he was locked in a cell with Dennis.

"Do you know what he's in there for?" The teen said Dennis asked him as he pointed to another man in a cell across the hall.

"This male was in there for rape, and [Dennis] said to me that 'if you want to end up in this type of place, with this fella, with this man over here, [you will] if you don't finish this relationship.

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"At that stage I broke, I broke down. Because I felt like at this point my relationship had been forced to be separated forever."

The teen said he felt "cold, scared and helpless".

Dennis then led the teen back to the interview room where a discussion was held about a flight the next morning to Australia, the boy said.

Authorised officer John Sieczkowski said today he saw part of the process on the CCTV monitors when "in cell eight the inspector was talking to the prisoner in the corner".

He added that the cell appeared to be locked and it was "very unusual" to have the pair in a locked cell.

"You would never put an officer and a prisoner in a locked cell [together]," he said.

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After eventually agreeing to leave for Australia, the teen was escorted to Auckland Airport and placed on a flight to Sydney.

Under the Immigration Act a New Zealand citizen cannot be deported to another country at any time.

On June 10, 2015, the teen tried to "escape" and return to New Zealand but Dennis "swung into action", the court has heard.

The inspector contacted the officer in charge at Auckland International Airport and arranged for armed police to usher the teen off the aircraft.

The boy said one of the officers told him that Dennis was on his way.

"I thought that I was allowed to come back to this country?" The teen said he questioned the officer.

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"But what I've heard is you're not meant to be back here," the teen said the officer replied.

Under law a New Zealand citizen cannot be stopped from returning home.

"What are you doing back here, you're not meant to be back here until I tell you to come back ... You are to go to Australia and live your new life - how many times do I have to tell you this?" The teen said Dennis told him.

Dennis also told the boy not to come back to the country until he was 18 and placed him on another flight to Australia, the court has heard.

After returning to Sydney, the teen claims he was assaulted and fled to friends of his girlfriend's mum.

He then reported the scenario to New South Wales Police.

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Dennis, who was also the chairman of Te Puea Marae in Mangere, was stood down from his duties in September 2015 shortly after the teen laid a complaint.

Stephen Bonnar QC, Dennis' lawyer, said that his client's actions were in accordance with Maori cultural customs, police strategy, and the law.

The trial continues.

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