Demi Putaranui appears in the Rotorua District Court for sentencing for a violent gang-related kidnapping. Photo / Kelly Makiha
Demi Putaranui and her Mongrel Mob boyfriend held an innocent teen visitor to Rotorua captive, bashed her and robbed her during a terrifying and life-changing ordeal.
Now Putaranui has been jailed on charges of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated robbery, injuring with intent to injure and the blackmailing of the young woman, who came to Rotorua with her friend to celebrate her birthday.
The 19-year-old victim was left so traumatised from the overnight events on February 25, 2024, she was forced to leave New Zealand to start her life again.
Mongrel Mob member Jayden Kennedy, 28, was jailed for five years and eight months last year after pleading guilty to his part in the offending.
But Putaranui, now 30, denied the charges, claiming she “froze” and was afraid of not doing what her boyfriend wanted.
A Rotorua District Court jury last month disagreed and found her guilty.
Judge John Bergseng outlined the facts at Putaranui’s sentencing in the Rotorua District Court on Thursday.
He said the teen girl and her friend, also aged under 20, came to Rotorua to have fun.
Judge Bergseng said they spent the night at various establishments in Rotorua, then the friend left with someone else.
The 19-year-old was upset she was left alone in a place she didn’t know when they were supposed to be celebrating her birthday.
Despite that, she met some other people and enjoyed the rest of her night, Judge Bergseng said.
About 1.45am she walked to her friend’s parked car in the central city, making the decision to sleep in it because she couldn’t drive a manual transmission.
After only a couple of minutes, Kennedy and Putaranui pulled up next to her. Another man and a young child were also in the car.
They started talking to the teen, who eventually asked for help moving the car somewhere safer.
Kennedy drove the vehicle to the Government Gardens for the teen while Putaranui and the others followed.
The teen became aware Kennedy was a Mongrel Mob member and started to feel intimidated, wondering if she had made the right call to ask for help, Judge Bergseng said.
She asked for her keys but Kennedy refused. Trying to dispel the situation, she offered to buy everyone McDonald’s.
The teen was driven to McDonald’s and they ate but Kennedy still refused to give back the keys.
The teen started to cry but was told to “shut up”, with Kennedy telling her “you bleed red now”, a reference to the Mongrel Mob.
The judge said it would have been an “absolutely terrifying situation” for the teen.
“Sadly, it just got worse.”
The teen was kept by the couple for the next four and a half hours and was beaten when she tried to escape the moving car.
Putaranui put her hands around the teen’s neck, punched her and violently assaulted her repeatedly in the head.
On two occasions, they forced her to hand over her bank card and stole money, totalling $320.
They smoked what was thought to be methamphetamine and blew the smoke in the teen’s face.
They went to an associate’s house and the teen was indecently assaulted by Kennedy when she went to the bathroom.
She was driven around different parts of Rotorua and rural areas, where ongoing threats were made, including that she would be raped and killed. The couple talked about where to bury the teen’s body.
“The impact on her has been absolutely profound,” the judge said.
Putaranui made a call from the teen’s phone to the teen’s friend, who owned the car. Money was demanded for her release. The friend then alerted police.
A police officer spotted the vehicle and gave chase but lost sight of it as it sped off.
The teen begged to be let out and Kennedy eventually pulled over and did so.
When the police officer caught up and stopped his vehicle, he could hear the teen crying out.
“It was a very compelling moment in the course of the trial, a young woman, barefoot, running through the ... gorse towards him, seeking his help and effectively collapsing into his arms.”
Judge Bergseng said it was only at that point the teen knew she was safe.
Putaranui’s lawyer, Max Simpkins, asked Judge Bergseng to consider a 47% discount to her sentence.
He said Putaranui was remorseful, was seeking help for her methamphetamine addiction and had no previous convictions.
Crown prosecutor Laurie McMaster disagreed, saying there were limited mitigating factors, highlighting she took the case to trial by denying the charges and created further trauma for the victim.
McMaster said she had “lost count” of the bail variations Putaranui was granted to allow her to do certain things while being electronically monitored.
She noted she breached her bail twice – significantly in January by associating with a key Crown witness, which resulted in her being put in custody until her trial.
Judge Bergseng noted Putaranui had smoked methamphetamine since she was 15.
He said while she played an important role in the offending, Kennedy was the instigator.
He gave an overall starting point of six years and six months and allowed for discounts of 35% for previous good character, upbringing and addiction, efforts of rehabilitation and the impact a prison term will have on her child. He did not give her any discount for remorse.
The resulting sentence was for three years and seven months in prison.
A pre-sentence report evaluated Putaranui as having a high risk of reoffending.
Judge Bergseng said that risk would always be there if she continued to associate with gangs.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.