Māngere torture killing: Marica Toalei finally named as woman who helped kidnap 17yo murder victim Dimetrius Pairama

• Marica Toalei, involved in the torture and kidnapping of teenager Dimetrius Pairama, has been named after her appeal for permanent name suppression was rejected by the Supreme Court.
• She was sentenced to five years and 10 months for kidnapping but was acquitted of murder.
• Toalei’s older co-defendants are serving life sentences for murder after Pairama, 17, was forced to hang herself.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

It’s been almost seven years since the body of 17-year-old Dimetrius Pairama was found in a rusted steel drum behind an abandoned Māngere state home where she had been held captive and tortured for hours before being forced to hang herself.

A third person who participated in the teen’s torture and kidnapping can finally be revealed, years after her co-defendants were named and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Marica Toalei was 16 when prosecutors said she joined in the cruel and brutal scheme - partially, it was alleged, because she harboured resentment over something Pairama had posted on Facebook.

Toalei, now 23, had been allowed to keep her name secret through her belated High Court at Auckland murder trial in 2023.

Her request for permanent name suppression - after jurors found her guilty of kidnapping but were unable to reach a verdict for murder - was rejected by the High Court soon after the trial and again by the Court of Appeal in July last year.

But her identity remained secret as Toalei sought an appeal to the Supreme Court. That court recently declined to hear the case, leaving no other avenues of appeal and allowing the Herald for the first time in seven years of reporting on the disturbing case to name her.

Dimetrius Pairama was found dead at a derelict house in July 2018. Photo / Supplied

“The Court [of Appeal] agreed with the High Court that even if the extreme hardship threshold were met, the public interest did not favour suppression given the seriousness of the offending and the assessed future risk of reoffending,” the Supreme Court panel noted in a six-page decision released last month - adding that it too, didn’t see an error in such reasoning.

“...The application for leave to appeal is dismissed.”

‘They wouldn’t stop’

Pairama was previously described by prosecutors as a “happy and outgoing” teen who “appeared to be doing her best to find her way in this world”.

On the surface, it appeared she had a lot in common with Toalei.

Both had learning disabilities and had been in and out of Oranga Tamariki care, both sometimes choosing to live on the streets after running away.

Pairama ran into a group that included Toalei in Auckland Central in July 2018 and agreed to go with them to an unoccupied Māngere state home.

But not long after they arrived at the home, the group violently turned on her.

Marica Toalei appears in the High Court at Auckland for trial in 2023, five years after the kidnapping, torture and killing of her 17-year-old friend Dimetrius Pairama. Jurors found Toalei guilty of kidnapping but could not reach a verdict on the murder charge. Photo / Michael Craig

Over the course of six hours before her death, Pairama was repeatedly punched and stomped on, forced to disrobe and tied naked to a chair with soiled underwear stuffed into her mouth.

She had her hair hacked off, was burned on sensitive areas of her body with a makeshift blowtorch, had household chemicals and baby powder poured on top of her, burning her eyes, and was ultimately forced to choose the method of her own murder: hanging or stabbing.

“[Pairama] was crying to stop but they wouldn’t stop - they just kept punching,” a girl who was 14 years old at the time would later tell police in an interview that was played at Toalei’s trial.

The 14-year-old was not charged and, as a juvenile witness, has automatic name suppression.

“They put [her underwear] in her mouth. She could hardly breathe,” the witness said while asked to give more detail about the next phase of the attack, in which Pairama was forced to disrobe.

“After that, they tied her on the chair. [Co-defendant] Ashley [Winter] said to shave her hair.”

When asked if Pairama resisted, the girl said she just cried.

“She doesn’t know how to fight at all,” she explained.

“She just went with it.”

Police investigate the home in Māngere where 17-year-old Dimetrius Pairama was found. Photo / Doug Sherring

Eventually, she said, Winter asked the victim; “How do you want to die?” and explained that she had two options - to hang herself or for Winter to stab her to death.

Pairama later told the 14-year-old to inform Winter that she had chosen to die by hanging and she wanted to get it over with, the child told police.

The witness said she was then told to leave the hallway where a noose, made out of colourful bedsheets, was being prepared.

Defendant’s ‘vulnerabilities’

During Toalei’s four-week trial, prosecutors painted the defendant as someone who harboured “bitter resentment” over a perceived Facebook slight by Pairama and perhaps teen drama over a boy they both liked.

As “trivial” as those reasons might sound, they were enough to prompt the defendant to act as a “wingman” after Winter took the lead, they argued.

But defence lawyer David Niven presented a different picture of the defendant: a “vulnerable” person who was under the control of Winter, described as a domineering, “predatory” adult nearly twice her age.

Winter, who was 27 at the time of the killing, and co-defendant Kerry Te Amo, 24, were both found guilty of murder by another jury in 2019.

Ashley Winter and Kerry Te Amo were both jailed for life for murdering Dimetrius Pairama. Photos / File

Toalei did not join Winter and Te Amo in the dock at the first trial because she was deemed unfit to stand trial at the time.

Justice Timothy Brewer, who oversaw her co-defendants’ trial, granted Toalei “permanent” name suppression in 2020 while she remained at a lockdown psychiatric facility.

“The Judge accepted that M was a young person with psychological conditions and particular vulnerabilities who would be in secure care for some years,” the Court of Appeal summarised of Justice Brewer’s decision, referring to Toalei as “M” because her name was still suppressed at the time.

“Because M had not been convicted of any offence, the legitimate public interest in knowing her name was reduced. The Judge considered that if M’s name were published ‘her life within secure care will be very difficult because of the notoriety of her case’ with the result that her prospects of rehabilitation will be compromised. This, the Judge considered, constituted extreme hardship.”

But Justice Brewer’s 2020 decision came with a caveat: permanent suppression would no longer apply if Toalei’s mental health ever improved to the point that she was deemed fit to stand trial.

That’s exactly what happened in 2022.

Dimetrius Pairama was previously described by prosecutors as a “happy and outgoing” teen who “appeared to be doing her best to find her way in this world”.

Suppression was then scheduled to lapse before Toalei’s trial began in July 2023, but Justice Kiri Tahana granted a defence request for it to remain in place on an interim basis until the trial concluded.

Toalei was handed a sentence in December 2023 of five years and 10 months for the kidnapping charge, at which time prosecutors announced they wouldn’t be seeking to retry her for murder.

The murder charge was dismissed, amounting to an acquittal.

Instead of serving the kidnapping sentence in prison, Toalei was ordered to return to the Mason Clinic as a special patient.

She has since completed the sentence.

‘Future risk’

At the sentencing hearing, Toalei’s lawyers argued she should receive permanent name suppression again because little had changed since Justice Brewer’s permanent name suppression decision three years earlier.

While 16 at the time of offending, she was assessed as having the mental capacity of a child between the ages of 11 and 13 years old, they noted. The appellate courts have described Toalei as suffering foetal alcohol spectrum disorder and mild intellectual disability.

Justice Tahana disagreed that Justice Brewer’s prior decision still applied. A conviction for kidnapping changed the situation considerably, she determined.

Dimetrius Pairama was given two choices by an attacker when it came to how she wanted to die.

“Even if the threshold of extreme hardship is met, which I am not satisfied it is, public interest factors weigh against permanent suppression,” she explained.

“The circumstances of the offending are serious. A young, vulnerable person was kidnapped. You were directly involved in the kidnapping.”

The judge noted that one expert found Toalei to have a “tendency for hostile, asserting dominance and antisocial conduct”.

“The safety of the public is relevant,” Justice Tahana added.

“When you do return to the community, there is an interest in people knowing your involvement in the kidnapping so that they can determine what actions they may wish to take to protect their safety.”

Pairama’s family had opposed permanent suppression, she also noted.

The Court of Appeal agreed that Justice Tahana had made the right call.

“While we readily accept that M’s disability makes life for her and those caring for her very difficult, there is nothing specific that emerges from the material before us to suggest that her situation will be markedly worsened if her identity is known,” the panel wrote in its 27-page decision.

“Even if the threshold had been met, we agree with the Judge’s view that the public interest in this case would result in name suppression being declined.

“The seriousness of this offending and the assessed future risk of reoffending means that the principles of open justice do not yield in this case.”

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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