Ricky Harder pleads guilty to torturing man inside Helensville, Auckland home

• Ricky Harder pleaded guilty in Auckland to kidnapping and injuring with intent to injure.
• He beat the victim with punches, kicks, a metal bar and a belt but wasn’t present when a drill and boiling water were allegedly used.
• The victim was confronted after a woman accused him of smacking her bottom.

A man who was accused of having smacked a woman’s bottom at an Auckland nightclub found himself hours later tied naked to a camping chair in a Head Hunter’s affiliated home - a newly drilled hole in his knee and burns from boiling water that had been poured over him.

That was the state Ricky Harder found the victim in early one morning last May when he joined in on the alleged torture, according to newly released court documents.

Harder pleaded guilty this week in the High Court at Auckland 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.

Others have maintained their not-guilty pleas and await trial next year.

According to the agreed summary of facts for Harder’s case, he was not initially present when the victim was confronted by a group of men on an Auckland CBD footpath around 4.20am that Sunday. The victim denied having touched the woman and agreed to go back to the bar to check CCTV with the group, but he had a feeling that was a ruse and gave a friend his phone and a bracelet for safe-keeping, documents state.

His suspicions were correct, and instead of being driven back to the bar with the men he was taken to a property in Helensville where the torture began, police allege.

After several hours that included “a number of violent acts” on the victim, Harder was called to the home, where he found the man still naked and bound.

“You’re f***ing ugly bro, you’re a f***ng disgrace,” the defendant told him before punching and kicking him in the body, face and head, court documents state.

The defendant is alleged to have joined the larger group of attackers in taking turns beating the victim with an aluminium pole. He admitted using it to hit the man across the face. He was also caught on video smacking the victim in the face, chest and back with a belt.

Harder said he left the property after about 30 minutes, but the victim remained there until early the next morning.

The victim suffered burns on multiple parts of his body, including a circular cigarette burn on his forehead and one allegedly inflicted with a hot knife. He also had cuts to his chest, bruising and swelling on his face, back and left buttock, as well as partially shaved hair and eyebrows and electric drill wounds to his thigh, shin and knee.

“Some of the lacerations to the body and bruising/swelling to the face may be attributed to Mr Harder’s actions,” the agreed summary of facts states.

Harder, who has no previous convictions, declined to co-operate with police upon his arrest. He is set to be sentenced in December.

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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