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Home / New Zealand

Gang member David Aaron Stephenson jailed for kidnap, violence on woman

By Belinda Feek
Reporter·NZ Herald·
8 Oct, 2018 09:02 PM4 mins to read

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David Stephenson, a Filthy Few member, was jailed for six years and five months on a raft of charges. Photo / File

David Stephenson, a Filthy Few member, was jailed for six years and five months on a raft of charges. Photo / File

Sitting in a car in the dead of night, a woman had a gun put to her head.

When she couldn't give David Aaron Stephenson the information he wanted, he fired the pistol at the windscreen.

Then back at her head.

Just five months out of jail after being sentenced to a near three-year jail term, 31-year-old Stephenson was after vengeance on those who testified against him and he wanted the victim to tell him where they lived.

She didn't have a clue and continued to repeat that to him throughout the night during several more threats and an indecent assault in which he forced her to watch pornography and smoke methamphetamine.

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Stephenson, a Filthy Few gang member who has "HEIL" tattooed across his face, was in the High Court at Hamilton today when he was sentenced to six years and five months' prison on a raft of charges including kidnapping, indecent assault, assaulting a female, unlawful possession of a firearm and several methamphetamine charges.

The court heard Stephenson texted the victim on April 5 last year and said he needed to talk to her.

The pair met and after sitting in the passenger seat, Stephenson pulled out a pistol and pointed it at her head and said "this is going to be a long night for you" before demanding she hand over the information.

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After shooting at the window, which left a crack, he told her the "next one is going through your head if you don't tell me".

He then made her drive to an associate's house to pick up a shotgun and took her phone and wallet to ensure she didn't leave.

When leaving, he reminded her that it was going to be a long night for her. They drove and picked up another associate, getting into his car with Stephenson behind the wheel.

As they drove towards Hamilton, he continued to ask her about where the witnesses lived and when she repeated not knowing anything he punched her in the face and said "every time you f****** lie to me I'm going to smack you".

They then drove to a secluded supermarket carpark and Stephenson got out and again yelled at her, and said he wanted to know where the "narks" lived.

They then drove towards Cambridge where he pulled over and, after grabbing his gun, told the victim to get in the back seat.

After demanding she look up porn and then play it, he smoked P then also made her smoke it.

The indecent assault involved him masturbating on her chest. Afterwards, she told Stephenson to take her home as it was getting close to 6.30pm and if her father noticed she wasn't home he would call the police.

Stephenson agreed and was arrested by police later that day with drugs and paraphernalia found in his car.

Crown prosecutor Louella Dunn said as Stephenson had earlier accepted a sentence indication the only issue to deal with was a remorse letter he had handed up.

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She reminded the judge the impact the offending had on the victim who had been too scared to write a victim impact statement and was wanting to distance herself as much as possible from the sentencing process.

Stephenson's counsel Sharon Green said the letter was genuine and was a form of reassurance for her that she didn't have anything to fear.

As for his offending, she described it as "pretty stupid" and would see him now jailed for a long time.

Justice Sarah Katz accepted that he'd had an abusive childhood which had caused depression and other issues in his adult life which saw him a regular user of methamphetamine.

She accepted he'd shown "some remorse and shown some insight" into what he'd done, giving him a small credit before giving another 10 per cent discount for his, albeit late, guilty plea.

Justice Katz also issued a second strike warning for the kidnapping and indecent assault charges which are qualifying violence offences.

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