Aidan Corlett, Jake McDonald and Ian Hawkes have been sentenced for perverting the course of justice following the violent attack in 2020.
Aidan Corlett, Jake McDonald and Ian Hawkes have been sentenced for perverting the course of justice following the violent attack in 2020.
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A judge has slammed the Hell's Angels code of secrecy after a man was beaten to within an inch of his life.
Jamie Angus was left with spinal fluid leaking from his ear, his cheek torn so badly muscle could be seen and was in a coma for a week after taking a beating at a Hell's Angels gang pad in Whanganui in 2020.
Yesterday Ian Hawkes, Jake McDonald and Aidan Corlett were sentenced in relation to the beating but have remained tight-lipped about what happened - something Judge Lance Rowe described as "choosing to protect extreme violence and cowardice".
The three men appeared in the Palmerston North District Court charged with perverting the course of justice and each received a sentence of six months' community detention and 12 months' supervision.
Angus, had been drinking with several friends, including Hawkes, on the night of the attack. While he doesn't remember what happened police say he ended at the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club pad on Kaikokupu Rd where he was beaten sometime in the early hours of the morning.
Nearly two hours later Angus was dropped at his address nearby unconscious, unresponsive, spinal fluid leaking from one ear, muscle showing through a laceration on one cheek and blood pooling around his neck.
He spent the next week in a coma and now has trouble with his memory, can only walk short distances and doesn't remember anything from the night.
Both Corlett and Hawkes declined to make any comment to police regarding the incident. McDonald said he went home at 2am and stayed there until work the next morning.
However, phone records show Corlett contacted McDonald on the morning of September 19 via Facebook messenger and asked him if he could pick up a severely injured Angus from the Hell's Angels clubhouse.
The victim was then taken back to his flat nearby and his flatmates told that he'd sustained a beating and an ambulance would need to be called.
Jamie Angus spent a week in a coma following the attack. Photo / Supplied
Judge Lance Rowe said the Angus no longer trusted anyone and is terrified of another beating.
"He doesn't know who did this or whether it might happen again."
He said while it wasn't clear whether the three had actually been part of the assault, they risked his life and deliberately hindered a police investigation.
"The people who did this to him won't be bought to account because of your actions. "
All three defendants pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and Judge Rowe said this went in their favour when it came to sentencing. He was scathing of their silence though.
"Each of you chose to protect the ethos of a gang over the welfare of a gravely injured man and the need for his attacker to be brought to justice."
"By choosing to protect the secrecy of a gang you chose to protect extreme violence and cowardice."
Another woman, Lee-Anne Duxfield, was sentenced earlier this month in Whanganui for her role in obstructing the investigation.
The Crown summary of facts states Angus was drinking with a workmate at the bar where Duxfield worked on September 18 and the trio left together at closing time.
Police launched an investigation into the assault and identified Duxfield had been with the victim before he'd sustained his injuries.
On September 24, Duxfield was interviewed and gave a formal written statement claiming she had driven the group back to an address where they ate burgers before she left sometime after 3am.
However, subsequent police inquiries showed she lied and had driven him and a colleague to an ATM, near the intersection of Somme Pde and Kaikokopu Rd, where both withdrew money.
The car was then driven into Kaikokopu Rd, across the railway line and towards the Hells Angels gang pad.
Duxfield was again interviewed by police on February 3, 2021, but refused to talk, "saying she would leave it as it is".
"Her actions have, to date, aided in protecting the persons responsible for the injuries to the victim, from criminal prosecution."
She was sentenced to 150 hours' community work and five months' community detention after pleading guilty in November last year.
Earlier this month her lawyer successfully argued for the community work to replaced by an extra month of community detention.
