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Home / New Zealand

Dome Valley case: Victim looked like a pile of rubbish when discovered

Amelia Wade
By Amelia Wade
Political reporter·NZ Herald·
27 Feb, 2017 10:02 PM4 mins to read

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Michelle Blom, Nicola Jones, Julie-Ann Torrance, Cameron Hakeke, (COURT SECURITY), Wayne Blackett. Appearing in the Auckland High Court on charges relating to an alleged attack of a teenager who was l

Michelle Blom, Nicola Jones, Julie-Ann Torrance, Cameron Hakeke, (COURT SECURITY), Wayne Blackett. Appearing in the Auckland High Court on charges relating to an alleged attack of a teenager who was l

Lying still on the side of the road, the Dome Valley victim looked like a pile of rubbish, a court has heard.

It was only when Kathleen Tolman put on her headlights that she saw the woman's leg move.

Tolman is the first person to give evidence during the trial at the High Court at Auckland of the five people charged over the attack on a 19-year-old.

The Crown says the victim was kidnapped twice in two weeks, tortured, sexually violated then "left for dead" on the side of the road in May 9 last year because she was rumoured to have slept with an ex-boyfriend of one of the defendants.

The accused are Michelle Blom, Nicola Jones, Cameron Hakeke, Wayne Blackett and Julie-Ann Torrance and all have been charged with varying offences.

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The defence lawyers say the defendants are innocent of the charges as some already admitted what roles they played in the attack.

This morning, Tolman told the court she came across the victim on her way to work about 6.45am that Monday.

"I didn't know at first what it was because a lot of people dump rubbish and things in that part of the road and I just thought someone might have dumped something.

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"But when I flicked my headlights on I saw the person move, the leg moved."

She got a sharp pain in her chest with fright and went to get her husband, Stephen Piggot, who called 111, and who also gave evidence today.

They returned and could see the woman was very badly injured with blood on her face, cable-ties around her wrists and ankles, and makeup running down her face.

She was puffing and kept touching her nose with one of her hands.

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Tolman kept telling the teenager she would "be okay" and help was on its way, she told the court.

Piggot described the woman's head as "cracked".

Crown prosecutor Henry Steele said yesterday the woman suffered seven hammer blows to the head and had been "left for dead".

Jones' lawyer, Maria Pecotic, told the jury her client had already pleaded guilty to three of the eight charges laid against her - the other five she did not do, including the assault with a Taser.

"She did not do these things that the Crown says they did."

And when Jones texted the victim's mother that she would kill her daughter if she ever saw her again, she never intended to follow through with the threat.

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Pecotic told the jurors they would hear "unpleasant" and "plain awful" things during the trial but urged the jury of five women and seven men to put aside feelings of sympathy and prejudice.

Their job was to listen to the evidence dispassionately, the lawyer said.

Blom's lawyer Julie-Anne Kincade also said her client didn't commit the offences she was accused of.

After picking up the victim from K Rd on May 8, the defendants went to Blom's house on Great North Rd where they allegedly stomped on the victim's hand, cut her hair, stripped her naked and sexually violated her.​

But Blom wasn't part of it because she was upstairs, Kincade said.

Blackett's lawyer, Mark Edgar, said his client also was not there when the alleged assaults took place and he had already admitted attempted murder and kidnapping.

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Hakeke's lawyer, Graeme Newell, said his client differed from the other defendants "markedly" because he had only been charged in relation to the first kidnapping two weeks earlier.

Hakeke, a sex worker, only invited the victim to his house in Green Bay and then left to see a client while Torrance and Jones allegedly committed the assaults and kidnapping on April 23.

"Did he intend the victim was assaulted with a Taser, assaulted by having her hair cut, be robbed of her vehicle, intentionally assist in any of the crimes alleged against him?

"Did he have any sort of a plan?" Newell asked.

The lawyer told the jury they would hear evidence there wasn't any "significant planning".

The trial continues.

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Charges the defendants face:

Nicola Monique Jones, 29, of Tauranga:
Attempted murder, sexual violation, injuring with intent, assault with Taser, threatening to kill.

Julie-Ann Torrance, 42, of Henderson:
Attempted murder, sexual violation, assault with a cricket bat, assault with a Taser, assault with scissors, injuring with intent.

Wayne Edward Blackett, 39, of Manurewa:
Sexual violation, assault with a cricket bat, assault with scissors.

Michelle Blom, 30, of Glen Eden:
Kidnapping, sexual violation, assault with a cricket bat, assault with scissors, injuring with intent.

Cameron Te Hau Kareti Hakeke, 34, Green Bay:
Kidnapping, assault with a Taser, assault with scissors, robbing victim of a car, iPad, phone and other items.

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