A meth dealer who angered his supplier had his toes almost twisted off with pliers, his knees bashed and his leg and jaw broken with a hammer as his mother and younger brother were detained in the house while the violence played out.
Now, four people who were part of a sequence of events leading up to the violent episode in Nelson almost two years ago have been sentenced on a range of charges including kidnapping, while the ringleader awaits his fate.
The charges resulted from a police operation to infiltrate the growing supply of methamphetamine into Nelson.
The four sentenced yesterday in the High Court in Nelson were caught up in the slipstream of the actions of ringleader Dylan Hemana, who has admitted serious charges linked to the events and whose sentencing was adjourned to obtain a cultural report.
Central to the sequence of events that landed them in court was the kidnapping and torture of the meth dealer, named “Mr H”, and the detention of his mother and teenage brother for two days over a bundle of missing meth worth about $200,000.
Mr H, the primary victim of the violence, had each of his big toes squeezed so hard with pliers he went dizzy with the pain and feared they would “pop off” before he was hit in the knees, leg and face with a hammer.
He was left with a broken leg and jaw, plus cuts to his face and leg that required surgery.
Zane Clifford Welsh and Repana Tangira appeared for sentence via video link from Christchurch and Whangārei courts before Justice Karen Grau. At the same time, Hopa William Wilson and Tessa Rose Alford waited their turn in the dock in Nelson.
Welsh, 38, was sentenced to six months’ community detention and 18 months’ intensive supervision on charges of kidnapping, being a party to the supply of methamphetamine, and a charge of intentional damage.
He was convicted and discharged on the charge of unlawfully being on a property.
Tangira, 20, who with Hemana was associated with the Head Hunters gang in Auckland and said to be the second most culpable in what happened, was sentenced to six months’ community detention and two years’ intensive supervision plus judicial monitoring on charges of kidnapping, being a party to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and dishonestly accessing a computer.
His lawyer, Wayne McKean, said Tangira had been “acting under direction” much like an “apprentice” when he came to Nelson to commit what was “very serious offending”.
He said caution was needed in applying discounts to the degree they did not outweigh the process, but sending Tangira to prison was likely to be a backward step.
“A feature of this case is that Tangira, throughout his life, had loving, caring parents who were devastated by his involvement with the Head Hunters,” McKean said.
Justice Grau said Tangira had been lured into the gang lifestyle by the thought it was “glamorous and exciting”.
Wilson, 31, who Crown prosecutor Jackson Webber said was not a party to the violence, was sentenced to eight months’ home detention plus six months’ post-release conditions on charges of kidnapping, and weapons and drugs charges.
Alford, a mother of three who Justice Grau described as a “low-level but reasonably busy drug dealer”, was sentenced to nine and a half months’ home detention with six months’ post-release conditions on drugs charges plus being a party to kidnapping, and accessing a computer.
The Crown described her as the least culpable in relation to the kidnapping, but likely to have been intimidated by Hemana and Tangira, “as many people would have been”, Webber said.
Justice Grau said nonetheless, she played an important role as the conduit between Hemana and Tangira.
The summary showed that in 2022, Hemana and an associate visited Mr H and left him a significant quantity of meth to look after.
It was initially kept in the boot of a car, which was left at his address.
Some days later he was told to bury the bag, which he found contained pottles and containers of meth.
However, after doing as instructed, he later dug the package up and, together with an associate described as a boarder at his home, took it to a nearby motel.
The police summary said it appeared the associate then took a large amount of the meth and left town.
On September 18, 2022, Hemana and Tangira flew to Nelson under false names to recover the meth.
When they arrived at Mr H’s address, they ransacked the property and detained him, and later his mother who they thought knew where the missing meth might be, and his younger brother.
Early in the morning a couple of days later, Mr H heard he was to be taken to the North Island and was told to drive Tangira and Alford to Blenheim.
Mr H feared for his family’s safety and what would happen if he did not do what he was told.
He drove the pair to Blenheim and was then told to drive to Picton, in anticipation of catching the Cook Strait ferry, before being instructed to head back to Nelson.
Once back at his house Mr H and his younger brother were told to stay in the garage with Alford, Welsh and Wilson who took turns guarding the pair.
Hemana and Tangira were upstairs in the lounge with Mr H’s mother, who continued denying knowing about the missing meth.
Hemana grew increasingly angry and told her he was going to “make her watch him hurting her children and have sex with her daughter”.
Tangira then got hold of the PIN number to her bank account and used her phone to withdraw two separate amounts of $390 and $400.
It was then that Mr H suffered the torture with the pair of pliers, followed by the hammer attack on his knees, leg and face.
He believed he lost consciousness due to the pain, which he said was “so intense he thought he would spew”.
Welsh, Alford and Wilson were not present in the room when the violence was inflicted against Mr H.
Sweating and dizzy, Mr H dragged himself to the kitchen and rinsed blood off the tools as ordered by Hemana, who then told him he had until midnight to get everything back or he was “going to die”.
The police were finally alerted and arrived at the central Nelson address to find Mr H pale and lying on the couch with visible injuries to his face and leg.
Welsh was found at the address, “doing what he was told” and ensuring that the victims did what Hemana and Tangira wanted
Wilson had arrived at the property with Alford about 45 minutes before the police arrived, saw Mr H was injured and administered first aid.
Justice Grau noted Wilson’s empathy towards the victims, but he continued to play a part in what happened until the very end.
She noted how the offending had become a pivotal point in his life, and that he had since decided to tread a different path to the extent he now “looked like a very different person” to that of two years ago.
Justice Grau said it was not in the public’s interest to sentence the defendants to prison, likely to be a backward step, considering the inroads they had made to improve their lives and remain on that path.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
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