Patrick Tukaki was high on meth when he carjacked a woman in Hamilton and forced her to drive him around. Photo / NZME
A woman was carjacked at a busy intersection by a stranger high on drugs who was carrying a rubbish bag full of clothes.
Despite initially screaming, the terrified mother managed to hold it together and remain calm.
He forced her to drive him around the city streets of Hamilton before she escaped when he ordered her to pull over in a supermarket carpark.
Today, the woman saw her kidnapper, Patrick Tukaki, again when he appeared in Hamilton District Court.
Through her victim impact statement, the self-employed woman told the court that Tukaki’s actions had affected her ability to work and drive, as she remained frightened when behind the wheel.
“My friends and family are worried for my long-term mental health.”
She was “angry” with how scared he made her feel and that she had lost income.
She hoped Tukaki understood how frightening the incident was for her but said she was thankful he didn’t get in a car with anyone younger, older, or more fragile than herself.
It was the morning of September 10, last year, when the victim stopped her vehicle at the intersection of Hyde St and Grandview Rd.
Tukaki ran towards her car, carrying a rubbish bag full of clothes.
He opened the passenger door, jumped in, and demanded she drive him to Fairfield.
She screamed and questioned what he was doing. When she stopped screaming, Tukaki again demanded she drive him across town.
Terrified of what he might do, she complied while Tukaki instructed her to lock the vehicle’s car doors.
She was told to drive along Grandview Rd, Avalon Drive, Forest Lake Rd, and then along Te Rapa Rd.
Tukaki asked how much petrol she had and advised they might need to go out of town.
The victim asked for her to be let out, telling him he could have the car, but he refused.
When they got near New World Te Rapa, Tukaki told her to pull in and demanded they switch seats.
The victim took the opportunity to escape and ran from the car. She screamed for help and numerous bystanders assisted her and called police.
Tukaki drove off but was later spiked by police and arrested in the Pak’nSave Mill St carpark.
Then, after being arrested and taken into the cells at Hamilton District Court, Tukaki assaulted a man who was also in the cells.
He punched the victim in the head and face eight times while the victim crouched down in a bid to protect himself. But Tukaki continued his attack.
In court, defence counsel Gerard Walsh accepted the incident must have been “terrifying” for the victim, but submitted there was no violence involved.
Tuakaki was genuinely remorseful, Walsh said, asking Walsh to say, “I am sorry”, on his behalf in court.
The offending was spurred by his drug problem, he submitted, explaining Tukaki had been abusing drugs since he was 10 years old.
Crown solicitor Leo Lai told Judge Kim Saunders that the offending was a senseless act.
“He gets into someone’s vehicle, keeping her in there, and keeping her hostage and forcing her to drive him around.”
Lai said there was a level of premeditation involved, as although he may not have meant to target this woman, he was going to get into someone’s car.
“He was planning to do this act, he just didn’t care who it was to, and it just so happened that it was [the victim’s] car that he got into.”
Judge Saunders said she wasn’t surprised to read in a pre-sentence report that Tukaki was “high” at the time, given he’d been using drugs for so many years.
He had an entrenched gang lifestyle, along with mental health and drug-related issues, and he had no pro-social support.
The judge said what did surprise her, though, was that with his history of violent offending, robbery, and demanding to steal convictions, the victim wasn’t hurt.
“The terrifying ordeal that you put her through could have turned out so much worse had it been somebody else in the car,” she said.
“Your history tells me you can be a violent man, and what you did in the holding cell says that as well.”
She praised the victim for her “compassion,” which spoke volumes about her, the judge said.
On charges of kidnapping, conversion of a motor vehicle, driving while disquailfied, and assault with intent to injure, Tutaki was jailed for two years and three months and disqualified from driving for one year and one day.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.