Manawanui Te Pou appears in court in 2016 on a charge of bashing a fellow inmate with a pool cue, leaving him hospitalised. Photo / Rob Kidd
Another prison sentence has been handed down to an Auckland man with a long criminal history whose latest crime spree - just weeks after he was released from prison - only ended when a cyclist was hit and killed as the defendant fled police.
Manawanui Te Pou, 28, returned to the High Court at Auckland today, almost exactly a year after he was sentenced in Auckland District Court to five years and one month in prison for causing the death of 39-year-old businessman and cycling enthusiast Jamie Jameson.
Until today, Te Pou had name suppression for the careless driving causing death conviction so as not to compromise his fair trial rights for the High Court matters.
But Justice Timothy Brewer allowed the suppression to drop as he ordered that Te Pou serve an additional three years in prison - stacked on top the sentence he is already serving - for having kidnapped and terrorised a delivery van driver.
Both Judge Anna Skellern, who sentenced Te Pou last year, and Brewer agreed that Te Pou’s background circumstances were among the worst they had ever seen.
His father was a high-ranking member of Black Power, he spent most of his childhood in state care, he suffered abuse, he is addicted to methamphetamine after having started taking drugs when he was 9, he was at one point moved to Australia due to death threats from his father, he suffers bipolar disorder and other mental health issues and he never learned to read or write, authorities have noted at his various sentencing hearings in recent years.
But Brewer said he had to balance the defendant’s unfair start to life with the judge’s responsibility to consider the safety of the community.
“You have no real prospect of rehabilitation, and upon release you will present a very high risk to the public because you will almost certainly re-offend,” Brewer said. “I don’t like saying that but I look at your record and I am driven to say that.”
Te Pou’s latest crime spree began in October 2019, after he completed a sentence of three years and four months for breaking a pool cue over a fellow inmate’s head - causing the man to suffer a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain, 22 stitches and needing plastic surgery. He served the entire sentence without parole because it was his second strike.
On October 27, 2019, he and his brother Kaiora Te Pou went to a home in Massey, West Auckland, and used machetes to smash the windows of a woman’s car after being told the person they were looking for wasn’t there. Kaiora Te Pou pleaded guilty last year to a charge of intentional damage and was sentenced in May to nine months’ prison.
Three weeks after that incident, Manawanui Te Pou and co-defendant Nuka Gemmell used a stolen car to box in a courier van on a residential driveway in Rānui, West Auckland. The driver of the van locked himself inside as the two approached but Te Pou broke a window with a screwdriver and tackled the man to the ground before dragging him to the stolen vehicle.
With Gemmell driving the courier van, the men arrived at another location then started rummaging through the packages, trying to find one that they thought to have drugs, court documents state. The courier was then driven to multiple locations, including ATMs and a KFC restaurant, in an attempt to drain his bank card. Eventually, the courier was given his van and his wallet back and allowed to drive away, although Te Pou kept his cell phone.
Gemmell pleaded guilty last year to kidnapping and aggravated robbery and was sentenced in May to four years and two months’ imprisonment.
On November 25, 2019, just one week after the courier van heist, police caught up to Te Pou at a Massey home. However, Te Pou sped off in a stolen station-wagon, driving erratically at speeds of up to 90km/h through the neighbourhood as police pursued him with lights flashing, officers later recalled at Te Pou’s Auckland District Court trial.
While fleeing, Te Pou crossed over into oncoming traffic as he turned on to Don Buck Rd, hitting Jameson, who was wearing cycling gear and a helmet. He then sped off without slowing down, police said. A short time later, witnesses said, he parked the damaged car down a long driveway and attempted to hide it under blankets before walking away.
He was arrested a short time later.
For that chain of events, Te Pou was found guilty last year of failure to stop for police, failure to stop or ascertain injury after Jameson was hit, recklessly causing Jameson’s death and for receiving stolen property worth less than $500. He would later tell a report writer prior to his sentencing that he was “so wasted” on the day of the incident he didn’t even know it was police who were chasing him.
He was set to go to trial in October for his part in the courier van incident but instead opted to plead guilty on the first day the trial was to begin. He had also pleaded guilty prior to another trial to the intentional damage charge involving his brother and two machetes.
In all, police had charged him with 19 offences in the few weeks between his prison release and his re-arrest. A jury found him not guilty of some of the allegations and other charges have been dropped.
During his sentencing last year, it was noted that he had managed to accumulate 59 previous convictions - 27 of which were vehicle-related - prior to the latest spree.
Justice Brewer noted today that the defendant’s “extensive criminal history” over the past decade included several convictions for burglaries, an aggravated robbery conviction in 2014 and the pool cue attack that resulted in a wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily injury conviction in 2016. His first prison sentence was at age 20 but he was involved with police much earlier, the judge noted.
Brewer also pointed out that Te Pou has never had a job and is unlikely to ever get one due to his illiteracy and criminal history. He quoted the defendant as telling a pre-sentencing report writer: “The only money I know how to make is off the street. That’s all I know.”
Defence lawyer Nalesoni Tupou noted during today’s hearing that his client, while claiming to have a gun during the courier van heist, never actually had one. The victim was eventually released unharmed, he said. He also pointed to a pile of certificates his client had recently earned in prison for voluntary courses.
“You have made impressive steps towards learning to read, write and do simple mathematics,” Brewer said of the courses. “I think that is probably a first for you, Mr Te Pou, and I hope that you continue it.”
Brewer expressed sympathy for the defendant’s horrific upbringing, adding that it no doubt had an effect on his adult behaviour. The judge also acknowledged two letters of remorse - one directed at the court and another that Te Pou hoped would be passed on to the courier driver, who declined to attend the sentencing hearing.
But the judge declined the defence’s request to have today’s sentence run concurrently with the five years and one month he is already serving.
Under normal circumstances, the judge said, he would have ordered another sentence of five years and one month for the kidnapping and robbery convictions. But he reduced the term to three years, taking into account that it would be stacked.
He declined Crown prosecutor David Wiseman’s request for a minimum period of imprisonment.
“The Parole Board is very familiar with you and your history and will be taking those matters into account when you apply for parole,” he told Te Pou, adding that the panel will also consider the “very impressive steps you are taking to rehabilitate yourself”.
Judge: 'It's behaviour that is wrong and at your age, you should know better'.