KEY POINTS:
A judge has thrown his weight behind Corrections Department initiatives to ban cellphones being used in prisons.
Judge Michael Crosbie yesterday jailed a gang member who "fixed" evidence with text messages from jail, for 3 1/2 years.
Leon Delshannon Turner got off the aggravated burglary charge in June
2006 by arranging for a witness not to be able to identify him, with a series of texts from prison.
"This offending occurs at a time when the Corrections Department has promulgated banning of cellphones to be used in prison," the Christchurch District Court judge said at the sentencing.
"It is timely because the courts are seeing more and more of this type of offending from texting in a prison environment."
Turner's sentencing also brought discussion about the Mongrel Mob hierarchy and the status of women within the gang because Turner, a 31-year-old patched member of the Aotearoa chapter, had persuaded a 19-year-old woman to fail to identify him at a depositions hearing.
The woman, Naomi Grace Whangapirita, was earlier jailed for 14 months for her part in the offence but Judge Crosbie said Turner's culpability was much higher. She had nothing to gain from it, and he had everything.
Turner already has 55 previous convictions, including for aggravated robbery and kidnapping in 1995, and assault with intent to injure in 2002. Whangapirita had no previous convictions.
The burglary happened during a time of heightened tensions between the Notorious and Aotearoa chapters of the Mongrel Mob in Christchurch in March 2006.
There was an aggravated burglary at the house of the president of the Notorious chapter, occupied by 10 children and two women at the time. During the burglary, the 2-year-old son of the president was stood over and a bulldog belonging to the child was stolen.
Whangapirita identified Turner as one of the burglars and he was arrested.
Because of the on-going gang clashes, the police got search warrants and checked the text messaging on several cellphones.
The texts showed the woman was communicating with Turner, who was in prison, and they were organising the evidence she would give at depositions.
The woman gave evidence at the hearing but her inability to identify Turner led to the charge being dropped, the police summary of facts states.
The woman has since removed herself from the gang culture.
Defence counsel David Bunce said Turner and Whangapirita had both "enthusiastically entered into the process" but Judge Crosbie said there was an inequality in their status.
"You are quite senior to her in terms of Mongrel Mob law and in terms of age and experience."
He also pointed to frequent references in the texts to "Sieg heil" and reminders that Turner was a mob member.
Mr Bunce said that was "just part of the argot [slang] of members of the mob" and that Turner believed the burglary prosecution had been based upon untruthful evidence.
Judge Crosbie said the conspiracy to pervert the course of justice - admitted by Turner with a guilty plea just before trial - had succeeded by getting the charge dismissed.
He jailed Turner for offending that "strikes at the very heart of the justice system".
- NZPA
