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Israel Lama and co-defendants pleaded guilty to kidnapping and torturing man.
The victim was subjected to drilling, burning, and beating after slapping a woman’s bottom.
The defendants face up to 14 years’ imprisonment, with sentencing dates to be set.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Soon after slapping a woman’s bottom at an Auckland Central nightclub, the man who did it found himself in the middle of a terrifying scene – kidnapped and tied naked to a camping chair while strangers used an electric drill to put holesin his shin and knee.
It turned out the partner of the woman he had inappropriately touched was a Head Hunters gang member, and that partner had friends willing to help him with the hours-long torture session in a Helensville house.
New details of the gruesome scene were revealed today as Head Hunters member Israel Lama pleaded guilty to multiple charges involving the maiming, burning and beating of the victim.
He was joined in the High Court at Auckland by co-defendants Jade Jerome and Nathan Tuaiti, a patched King Cobras member. Both pleaded guilty to having joined Lama in the violence.
By the time the ordeal ended, the victim emerged alive but with shaved eyebrows, cigarette burns on his forehead, cuts from a heated knife, injuries from being struck with a metal pole and burns from scalding water poured over his naked body, court documents state.
The victim and the defendants were in downtown Auckland about 4am one Sunday in May 2023 when the victim was confronted about his suspected behaviour inside a nearby bar.
The victim denied touching the woman and agreed to go back to the bar to check CCTV with the group.
However, he had a feeling that was a ruse and gave a friend his phone and a bracelet for safe-keeping, documents state.
Head Hunters member Israel Lama appears on torture charges in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Michael Craig
His suspicions were correct, and instead of being driven back to the bar, he was taken to a property in Helensville where the torture began, police allege.
Police have since reviewed CCTV footage from the bar and confirmed that the victim did slap the woman’s bottom.
“Upon arrival at the scene, the offending group took [the victim] inside to an upstairs room of the address and detained him,” according to the agreed summary of facts for Lama and Jerome.
Tuaiti has not yet finalised an agreed facts document.
“Whilst inside the address [the victim] noticed numerous signs and emblems denoting the Head Hunters Motorcycle Club gang,” the document continued.
The group made the victim strip naked before he was seated in a camping chair, as Lama ordered Jerome to bind his arms and legs with electrical cords.
“Israel Lama uplifted a Makita electric impact driver fitted with a screwdriver bit and started drilling a hole in [the victim’s] left thigh.”
Jade Jerome has pleaded guilty in the High Court at Auckland to helping torture a stranger. Photo / Michael Craig
Jerome, Tuaiti and another man held the man down as three holes were drilled, authorities allege.
“The drill was used forcefully so that even though the impact driver was not fitted with a threaded drill bit, it deeply penetrated [the victim’s] flesh and muscle approximately one centimetre,” authorities explained.
As he drilled, Lama began to interrogate the stranger, who continued to deny he had slapped the woman’s bottom.
His wounds were later treated with toilet paper and tape.
Lama then switched torture tactics, retrieving a large knife that had been heated up on a nearby gas burner.
“Israel Lama used the extremely hot knife to burn [the victim’s] chest and face,” documents state, adding that others again stepped in to help hold the victim down.
“Israel Lama ran the blade across [the victim’s] chest prior to burning it, causing lacerations to [his] chest.”
The victim was then ordered by Lama to get on the floor, at which point the crowd began punching and kicking him, including blows to his head.
Group members then passed around an aluminium pole and beat the man until the pole became so bent it was no longer usable.
“The defendants complained about this and taunted [the victim] for breaking the pole,” court documents state.
“They joked about having to beat [him] further for breaking their pole.”
Nathan Tuaiti appears in the High Court at Auckland to plead guilty to participating in the prolongued torture of a man who slapped the bottom of a mate's partner in an Auckland nightclub. Photo / Craig Kapitan
The beating continued until Lama came up with another sadistic idea and told the group to stop. He ordered someone to bring him a jug of hot water.
The victim squirmed in pain, despite being held down, as Lama poured the scalding water over him. Lama again told him to confess, and the man again insisted he hadn’t done it.
“Israel Lama then poured the hot water onto [his] already seared chest and poured the hot water onto [his] genitals,” documents state, noting that others in the room yahooed and laughed as he did so. “[He] could not offer resistance and remained on the ground trying to protect his genitals.”
Another person then splashed cold water on the victim.
At that point, Jerome used a hammer to repeatedly hit the man’s legs, shins and knees – making it difficult for him to walk afterwards.
At one point, Lama also took the victim’s own belt and began whipping him with it. He then passed the item around as others in the room took turns – bruising his back and bottom.
Another person, it is alleged, then used the belt to strangle him for around 10 seconds.
Jade Jerome (left) and Israel Lama stand in the dock accompanied by security officers in the High Court at Auckland. They pleaded guilty to the torture of a stranger who slapped the bottom of Lama's partner in a nightclub. Photo / Michael Craig
Most of the people then “retired from the torture to rest” while two men stood guard. They chatted with the victim, telling him they were former Bloods gang members who had changed allegiance to the Head Hunters, court documents state. They refused to allow him to get dressed again.
“After an extended period of time, Israel Lama returned and told the victim to lay on his stomach,” documents state.
“Israel Lama began whipping [him] again with his belt. He verbally abused [him] whilst he whipped his back and bottom repeatedly.
“This included making racist remarks and comments about slavery. The rest of the offending group were present and encouraged Israel Lama.
“Israel Lama handed the belt to others in the group who also whipped [the victim].”
Eventually, the victim was taken away from the home because a club meeting was about to take place and Lama didn’t want him there, authorities said.
But he was brought back after the meeting, at which point Lama debated with the victim whether he should let him go.
He suggested the victim would need to pay him $20,000 before he could be set free. The victim said he didn’t have that kind of money but offered to work for him to pay it off, the agreed facts state.
The victim was given Chinese takeaway food, which he was told to eat with his hands, then ordered to shower before he was dropped off where the ordeal started in Auckland Central.
Lama had given him a deadline of June 2 – four days later – to come up with the $20,000.
Shortly thereafter, the victim went to the hospital for treatment of his many injuries. One of the burns would later require a skin graft.
However, he didn’t go to police. He was discovered “by chance” by officers who happened to be at the hospital attending another matter, authorities said.
Many parts of the torture were caught on video, investigators would later learn. In fact, Lama did little to hide evidence of what had happened – posting some of the assaults on his now deleted Instagram account, dubbed “torturous88″.
The number 88 has been adopted by the Head Hunters, a reference to “H” being the eighth letter of the alphabet.
“Ol mate here reckons he can slap me Mrs arse in the club,” the caption to one video read.
After police executed a search warrant, more videos were found on Lama’s phone in which he made more references to his gang affiliation as he carried out the attacks.
“I’m motherf*****g torturous, n***a,” he proclaimed on video at one point. “You’re gonna wish you’re dead, n***a.”
Justice Timothy Brewer has not yet set a sentencing date for the trio. A fourth defendant, Ricky Harder, pleaded guilty in October and is set to be sentenced later this month.
Each defendant will face up to 14 years’ imprisonment.
Others have maintained their not-guilty pleas and await trial.
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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