Head Hunters gang prospect Ricky Harder sentenced for Auckland kidnapping, torture

Former Head Hunters prospect Ricky Harder appears in the High Court at Auckland for sentencing after admitting to having participated in the May 2023 kidnapping and torture of a stranger. Photo / Michael Craig

• Ricky Harder has been sentenced to home detention for his role in kidnapping and torturing a man.
• Justice Jane Anderson noted Harder’s limited participation compared to his co-defendants.
• The victim was held for 21 hours and suffered severe injuries during the ordeal.

WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT

The first of seven men to have admitted kidnapping and torturing a nightclub patron who slapped a woman’s bottom has been sentenced to home detention.

However, others shouldn’t expect the same result, a judge emphasised today as former Head Hunters gang prospect Ricky Harder appeared in the High Court at Auckland.

Harder, 21, was a latecomer to the horrific scene inside a Head Hunters-affiliated Helensville home, where the victim had been tied naked to a camping chair, had holes drilled in his leg and was burned with scalding water.

But he quickly joined in on the degradation and violence.

“You’re f*****g ugly bro, you’re a f*****g disgrace,” Harder told the victim before punching and kicking him in the body, face and head.

Harder pleaded guilty in October to kidnapping, which carries a sentence of up to 14 years’ imprisonment, and injuring with intent to injure, punishable by up to five years of incarceration.

Six others - including alleged ringleader Israel Lama, a patched member of the same gang Harder was trying out for - had been set to go to trial in July. But each of the other co-defendants has pleaded guilty in recent weeks, and now will be sentenced in July.

“He continues to suffer ongoing pain,” Justice Jane Anderson said today of the victim’s injuries.

“He was subject to a terrible ordeal that you participated in.”

But she acknowledged that Harder’s participation, which lasted about 30 minutes, was “significantly less” than that of his co-defendants.

“You were not present during the particularly sadistic elements of the assault,” she said.

Bent pole

Court documents state the defendant was confronted in Auckland Central about 4.20am on May 28, 2023, after Lama’s girlfriend said the stranger had slapped her bottom inside a nearby nightclub.

The victim denied having done so but agreed to get in a car with the group to review the nightclub’s CCTV footage. He was instead taken to the house. Police would later note that CCTV footage did show the stranger inappropriately touching the woman in the club.

Head Hunters gang member Israel Lama drilled holes in a man's thigh, knee and shin. Photo / Michael Craig

Lama, who posted clips of the incident on social media using the now-defunct handle “torturous88″, interrogated the stranger as he used a Makita power drill fitted with a screwdriver bit to put the holes in his thigh, knee and shin while others held the man down.

He later used a large knife that had been heated up on a nearby gas burner to burn and cut the man.

Harder, however, arrived at the scene about 7.25am after receiving a call from Lama. The burning and drilling had already taken place, but the victim was still naked with his hands bound.

Justice Anderson noted today that there would have been a power imbalance at play, with a patched Head Hunter giving a prospect an order.

The summary of facts that Harder agreed to state he insulted and beat the man before joining others in the room in taking turns hitting him with an aluminium pole.

Agreed facts for co-defendants provide more context.

“After several blows, the aluminium pole bent and became unusable,” according to the facts Lama agreed to.

“The defendants complained about this and taunted [the victim] for breaking the pole. They joked about having to beat [him] further for breaking their pole.

“They continued to punch and kick [him] around the body and head until Israel Lama told them to stop.”

Ricky Harder appears in the High Court at Auckland for sentencing after admitting to having aided six others in May 2023 as they kidnapped and tortured a stranger at a North Shore Head Hunters house. Photo / Michael Craig

Harder was also filmed using a belt to smack the victim in the face, chest and back. He then left and the violence carried on without him, including pouring boiling water over the victim’s naked body, striking him with a hammer and shaving his eyebrows.

The victim was released early the next morning, after roughly 21 hours in captivity.

‘Utterly reprehensible’

At today’s hearing, defence lawyer Mikaela Ryan asked the judge for 55% in total discounts, including for her client’s background, a learning disability and his efforts at rehabilitation.

Crown prosecutor Pip McNabb argued that some of the discounts requested by the defence would be redundant. The Crown proposed 45% in credits.

Both sides agreed, as did the judge, that home detention was an adequate outcome when considering Harder’s limited participation in the horrific events that morning.

The victim, who was granted name suppression today after the Crown argued it was necessary to protect his safety, did not appear in court. No victim impact statement was read.

Nevertheless, the judge said, the victim’s “extreme vulnerability” would have been obvious to Harder upon his arrival at the home.

“The experience the victim was subjected to was utterly reprehensible,” she said.

Justice Jane Anderson presided over the sentencing of Ricky Harder today in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Michael Craig

Justice Anderson allowed a three-year starting point for Harder’s participation in the beating, which she considered the lead offence, then uplifted it by six months for his participation in the kidnapping.

At a sentence indication hearing last year, the judge had agreed to a 20% discount for his guilty plea and 10% for his youth.

She declined a discount for his background, pointing out that he had been raised in a loving family.

He started hanging out with the wrong crowd around the age of 13 after the suicide of his brother, who was also involved in gangs, according to a report prepared for the sentencing.

On the night of the kidnapping, he was with the same anti-social crowd and estimated he had consumed about 36 beers. The Crown opposed any suggestion that he was too impaired to realise what he was doing, and the judge agreed.

But Justice Anderson did allow an additional 5% discount for a report showing him to be in the bottom fifth percentile for cognitive functioning, likely resulting in issues with attention and impulsivity. It would make prison particularly challenging for him, she said.

Any discount for prior good character, she said, had to be tempered by the fact he was prospecting for a gang. But she praised his efforts at rehabilitation since his arrest, including distancing himself from his prior lifestyle. She allowed a final 10% in discounts for rehabilitation and remorse.

He had shown through his adherence to strict bail conditions that he does not present a risk to society, the judge said of her decision to allow 12 months’ home detention instead of 23 months’ prison.

“In contrast, imprisonment carries with it an increased risk of you falling under the influence of gangs again,” she said, describing such a scenario as risking “permanently derailing the impressive progress you have made”.

She encouraged Harder to continue his positive trajectory.

“You have an infant daughter who is relying on you,” the judge reminded him. “Please don’t let her down.”

Co-defendants Jade Jerome, left, and Israel Lama stand in the dock in the High Court at Auckland while pleading guilty to participating in the kidnapping and torture of a stranger. Photo / Michael Craig

All other co-defendants are set to return to court for sentencing on July 30.

Joining Israel Lama in the courtroom dock will be his brothers, Samuel and Sef Lama, as well as co-defendants Harmon Marcellus Unasa, Nathan Tuaiti and Jade Jerome.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.

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