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The man who died after fleeing police on a stolen motorbike and crashing into a parked car in Auckland earlier this month was a 501 deported from Australia - where he’d lived since he was 2 years old - for repeated criminal offending.
His mother says, while Phillip Edward MarkhamDawson-Marr had racked up serious crimes including a brutal assault on his employer, he did not deserve to die alone with no family at his side.
She also argues that he should never have been deported given he had not been to New Zealand since she moved her family to Melbourne when he was a toddler.
Just before 2pm on June 15, the 26-year-old failed to stop when signalled by police on Campbell Rd, One Tree Hill.
Phillip Dawson-Marr died after the stolen motorbike he was riding hit a parked car when he fled police. He is pictured here in an Australian immigration facility before his deportation. Photo / Facebook
“He developed a ‘me against the world’ attitude … then fell in with these 501s, who did nothing but encourage my son’s anger towards society and authority.”
Hohepa conceded she had lost contact with her son after he was deported - about a year ago - but said she never stopped loving or caring about him and was desperate for him to stop offending and have a good life.
She said her son started offending at 14, developed drug and alcohol addictions young, and spent time in a youth justice facility near Melbourne.
A shrine to Dawson-Marr at his mother's home in Melbourne. Photo / Supplied
She explained that when Dawson-Marr was released he started an apprenticeship, got his own place and, for a while, “was standing on his own two feet”.
Hohepa said she was proud of her son for that period - for having the “courage to resist more offending” - but knew he was always “skating on thin ice”.
In 2016 he was convicted - as an adult - on a raft of serious violence charges including threatening to kill, assaulting emergency services workers and criminal damage.
He was placed on a 12-month community sentence with a number of conditions including that he not re-offend.
However, in 2017 he was back in court charged with breaching the conditions.
Hohepa said he was then sent to Broadmeadows immigration detention facility.
But when he was deported she lost contact with him.
Hohepa told the Herald she found out about her son’s death through a Facebook post.
“It isn’t right, children are supposed to bury their parents,” she said.
Dawson-Marr as a child. Photo / Supplied
She only knew the basic details of her son’s death - which has been referred to the Coroner and the Independent Police Conduct Authority.
“I’m not surprised he fled, I am not surprised about his actions at all, it’s similar to what he did in Australia when he was frightened.
“To get away from people when he was scared, he ran - he’s done it since primary school, it’s a coping mechanism. He climbed up trees to get away from bullies.
“He learned at a young age to evade and avoid … when I read the article about the pursuit I immediately thought ‘he was scared’.”
Hohepa said her son’s death was “crazy” and “sad” and she believed he would still be alive if he had not been deported.
“He was a stranger in a strange land, he had no one … and now he’s dead,” she said.
“He was misunderstood … he was desperate to belong, he was desperate to fit in and to have friends.
“That’s how he ended up in with these 501s, they have just preyed on his vulnerabilities … Phillip was a very loyal person and unfortunately, he was loyal to the wrong people … they are just purveyors of misery.”
Phillip Dawson-Marr as a young teen with his mother Makere Hohepa. Photo / Supplied
501s are a group of New Zealand-born offenders deported back here under section 501 of the Australian Immigration Act.
Hohepa said her son had started associating with a “gang” of them while he was detained, and continued the affiliation in New Zealand.
“Gang life felt appealing to Phillip because he felt he finally belonged to something as society, in general, had shunned him from an early age,” she lamented.
Hohepa said her son, despite his troubles, was a loved member of her family. He is survived by three biological brothers and a sister, two nieces and two nephews.
She also wanted him remembered for being a loving, kind and funny man - not just a criminal and gang member.
“I would like to humanise my son Phillip and get everyone who reads his story to see behind the veil of offending, see the boy, the man, the son, the brother, the uncle, the friend,” she said.
She also hoped his death would prompt further work between the Australian and New Zealand governments around the issue of deportees.
Both Dame Jacinda Ardern and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have held talks with their Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese about the controversial 501s deportation policy.
Phillip Dawson-Marr. Photo / Facebook
Earlier this year, Albanese promised to change the way the policy was implemented, taking into account how long a person has spent in Australia before a decision is made to deport them.
“We put in place our policy, which is I believe a common-sense policy. We retain Section 501 deportations, the capacity to cancel visas and remove people who pose a risk to the community,” Albanese said.
“What’s changed is we will have a common-sense approach and bear in mind what a person’s ties are to Australia when assessing these cases.
“There’s a big distinction between someone who comes to Australia either as a teen or an adult and commits offences and someone who has zero connection back in New Zealand and might have come here as an infant.”
Hohepa was devastated her son was deported before the change came about.
“There is much more work for them to do on both sides of the Tasman … This was his home, this is where his family was.
“We are a family in mourning we have lost an important member … Our heartbreak is palpable and shall last as long as we have life in us.”
Dawson-Marr in December 2022. Photo / Facebook
The police investigation into Dawson-Marr’s fatal crash is ongoing.
Police were not actively pursuing the offender when he crashed.
“Police signalled for the motorbike to stop as it was flagged as stolen and the motorbike fled the area. Police elected not to pursue,” a spokeswoman said.
“We are unable to comment further on the crash as it is currently under investigation, and following the completion of this, it will be a matter for the Coroner.”
Anna Leask is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008.
