Hagen Taraiwa Wiremu Henare, appearing in court in 2017. Photo / NZME
A Mongrel Mob member with a history of kidnapping and violence was involved in an aggravated robbery within a week of being released from prison.
Now Hagen Taraiwa Wiremu Henare is back behind bars again.
The 33-year-old appeared in the Napier District Court on Tuesday and was given a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
The court was told Henare and a co-offender assaulted and robbed a man who had gone to a Napier house to conduct a drug deal in February 2023.
When the victim got to the house, Henare and fellow mobster Dunlop Taurima were in the backyard.
There was a discussion about a “previous incident” involving the men, Judge Richard Earwaker said.
Henare struck the victim in the head from behind, then held his arms while Taurima punched and kicked him.
“He feared for his life,” the judge said.
The two assailants took the victim’s wallet, phone and car keys.
The victim fled, pursued by Henare and Taurima, but cut his arm on the metal front fence before escaping.
When police went to the property, the victim’s vehicle had gone.
Dunlop Taurima pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced earlier to one year and 11 months in prison.
Henare denied the offence but continued to deny liability despite being found guilty at a jury trial, the judge said.
Judge Earwaker said Henare committed the offence within a week of being released from prison for previous violent offending.
The judge ordered Henare to pay $2186 in reparation - his half-share of the victim’s losses from the robbery. He remitted outstanding fines of $3207.
Henare has a number of previous convictions for violence.
In 2017, he was one of two gang members who pleaded guilty to kidnapping a young woman who owed a $400-800 debt for methamphetamine to Mongrel Mob kingpin Alexander Tamati.
They took her to Tamati so she could “work it off”.
Tamati, then 60, was later found guilty of four charges of unlawful sexual connection, as well as kidnapping, aggravated assault, assault on a female, assault with a blunt instrument and threatening to kill or do grievous bodily harm.
In that case, Henare and Neil Angus Benson, both 28 at the time, took the woman to Tamati, sending the message “parcel delivered” in the early hours on November 26, 2016.
For that crime, Henare was jailed for two years and six months.
Alexander Tamati is serving a 10-year term for holding the woman against her will and abusing her.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.
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