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A former Mongrel Mob member with 65 previous convictions has had months added to his current jail sentence after pleading guilty to influencing the trial testimony of his victim.
Jason Rex Maney, 42, who has been jailed 29 times before, was sentenced in the High Court at href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/rotorua/" target="_blank">Rotorua yesterday on one charge of wilfully attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Three members of Maney’s family were in the public gallery at the sentencing.
One family member waved to Maney as he was led from the dock. “Goodbye, darling,” she said.
Maney, originally from Rotorua but lately from Tauranga, is serving an 8½-year sentence after being found guilty in May of violence charges against his victim.
He strangled his victim until she was unconscious and beat her head and face, resulting in a brain bleed.
Maney was sentenced for this offending in July. He must serve a minimum of five years’ imprisonment.
Going through the facts of the case, Justice Layne Harvey said that, while in custody awaiting trial for the attack, Maney “devised a plan to defeat” his charges.
Between December 2021 and February 2022, he asked his brother and a fellow Springhill inmate, whom Maney had recruited into the Mongrel Mob from prison, to influence his victim’s testimony at trial.
“You instructed [your accomplice] to get the witness to change her statement and state that she was not assaulted by you but instead by a Crown witness.”
Jason Rex Maney was sentenced in the High Court at Rotorua on a charge of wilfully attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Maney made handwritten changes to the witness’ formal statement and had it delivered to his accomplice, who was on bail in Upper Hutt.
In 2022, via a group call, Maney told an accomplice to contact the witness and tell her “what was missing” from her statement.
Justice Harvey said police found the witness’ formal statements with Maney’s handwritten changes after searching the accomplice’s home.
Police also found two devices containing communications with the witness, discussing her statement and the evidence she should give at trial.
“You were the person driving this offending,” Justice Harvey said, addressing Maney at sentencing.
“It was premeditated to a significant degree and you recruited others to assist. As the Crown pointed out, the witness was successfully influenced to change her evidence. She was the key Crown witness.”
Justice Harvey said it was notable that Maney had carried out similar offending while in custody awaiting trial on different violence charges in 2016.
