By EUGENE BINGHAM
Enraged by the tortured death of his daughter, Peter Lafaele went to prison intent on revenge.
He committed an aggravated robbery so he could be remanded in Mt Eden Prison alongside his daughter's killer, Eddie Smith, and got within a metre of lashing out at him, halted only by
an alert guard.
Thirteen years later, Mr Lafaele, the natural father of Delcelia Witika, is still full of the anger and frustration he felt when he hatched his plot.
"I want him locked up for the rest of life because ... I know what I'm capable of. That's not a threat or anything, it's just that it wasn't just a car accident - he tortured her to death."
Mr Lafaele was a 17-year-old labourer living in Northland with Tania Witika, then 19, when they had Delcelia in December 1988. After nine months they broke up and Witika shifted back to South Auckland with Delcelia and moved in with Smith.
In 1991, Witika and Smith were jailed for 16 years for the manslaughter of Delcelia, who died in agony after being bashed and burned.
Mr Lafaele said that when Delcelia came to his place on visits in the months before her death, he noticed a change in her.
"Whenever I used to get up and walk, her eyes were locked on to me; if I raised my voice, she wouldcling on to my mother."
While Smith was on remand before the trial, Mr Lafaele decided to go to prison to get his revenge. He beat up a man and stole his car, just so he could go inside to find Smith.
"I nearly got him too - I missed him by two feet. He was about to hop into the same paddy wagon as I was in but then the head screw came and told them not to do that."
He was sentenced to 12 months' jail for the aggravated robbery. Since then, he has settled down and had a family, but the memories of what happened to Delcelia still haunt him.
"It's wrecked me. Every time I build my life up, this gets dropped ... I've picked myself up about four times in the past 14 years."
If he sees Smith on the street, Mr Lafaele says he would be prepared for anything.
"I've been doing martial arts since I was 8. There's nothing that I'm scared of."
