Esarona Lologa was found guilty of murder after setting fire to Loafers Lodge, killing five people. Photo / Marty Melville, NZ Herald
By Sam Sherwood of RNZ
Fourteen years before Esarona Lologa set fire to Loafers Lodge – killing five people – he attempted to murder a teenager with a machete. The teenager, now in his mid-30s, spoke exclusively to RNZ’s national crime correspondent Sam Sherwood about the night he almost lost his life.
Sitting on the couch in his living room, Robert* removes his hat, tilting his head forward to reveal a scar, about 13cm long, on the left side of his head.
He then turns over his left hand showing where he had a skin graft as well as a scar that almost goes from one side of his palm to the other.
The 35-year-old then calmly puts his hat back on and says “that’s from that night ... a night I will never forget”.
The night he is referring to is October 13, 2009, when he came terrifyingly close to being killed at the hands of his mother’s partner Esarona David Lologa, who struck him twice with a machete, fracturing his skull.
Lologa, a “recidivist offender” with more than 40 convictions, would be jailed for six years.
Nearly 14 years later, Robert received a letter to say Lologa was in custody and facing charges of arson and murder.
He was stunned when he realised the man who had tried taking his life was actually accused of killing five people after setting fire to Loafers Lodge in Wellington.
On Friday a jury found Lologa guilty of murder. With the verdict, the story of the night he almost ended Robert’s life can be told.
Robert’s mother met Esarona Lologa, known as David, in 2008.
He recalls Lologa initially coming over for “random visits”, before eventually moving into their home in Māngere, Auckland.
The couple would often be up late at night drinking alcohol with the music up loud which would annoy Robert, who would have trouble getting to sleep.
The relationship was turbulent and marred by domestic violence with police called on several occasions. After one incident Lologa wasn’t allowed back at the house for a week, Robert says, but then eventually returned.
“It became a repeated cycle. It was not a good environment to be in,” Robert says.
“I just got fed up... every time I intervened my mum always defended him.”
For Robert, his focus was on finishing his foundation course so he could get into university while finding a way to “get out”.
Robert says he and Lologa never got on. The first physical altercation between the pair came one day when Robert says Lologa had the stereo up loud and Robert “snapped”.
“I just wanted some peace and quiet ... he was telling me to lighten up and I finally broke and I pushed him to the ground and started punching him.”
Robert’s cousin and mother broke up the fight.
About a year later – on October 13, 2009 – the tension became violent for a second time.
About 1pm, Lologa began drinking at home before moving to the neighbour’s house to continue drinking.
Robert says as the hours went by and Lologa continued to drink, he expected the cycle of drunken violence to continue, but not towards him.
About 10pm Lologa returned and ate a meal that Robert had been saving himself in the fridge. He then left the property and returned about 30 minutes later.
While Lologa was gone, Robert’s mother told him he had eaten his meal.
When Lologa returned to his home in an “intoxicated state” after drinking 18 cans of Cody’s and Woodstock, he kicked and knocked on the door of the house to get in.
When he was finally let in, the couple had an argument.
Thinking Lologa had hurt his mother, Robert said to him: “If you hurt her again, I am going to punch you.”
Lologa then left the house and walked to his car where he retrieved a sharpened machete with a blade about 45cm long. He then went back into the home and confronted Robert.
“I just remember seeing the object, but at the time it was dark. I didn’t have my glasses on. So at the time, I thought it was like a piece of wood.”
Lologa then attacked Robert yelling out he was “going to kill” him. He tried striking Robert several times with the machete but missed.
He was, however, able to strike two heavy blows to Robert’s body, one struck him in the left hand as he tried to defend his head, causing a deep cut to his hand, severing a number of tendons.
The second was to the left side of his head, fracturing his skull.
“Once I realised it was a machete and I saw my face bleeding I knew I was in danger and I was like ‘oh shit, I’ve got to find a way to get out…’ I thought it would be my last night, I thought that would be it for me.”
Robert then ran from the property, fearing he would collapse any moment because of the blood loss. Lologa chased him up the long driveway and on to the street, attracting the attention of a number of neighbours.
One of the neighbours told Lologa to “calm down and put the machete down”. Lologa replied to “f*** off or I will kill you”. The neighbour retreated and waited for Lologa to return down the driveway by hiding behind a fence.
Robert eventually turned around and headed back towards his home and, using his speed as a winger, side-stepped Lologa.
Then one of his childhood friend’s parents told him to go into their property where he lay down in their garage while they tried to stop the bleeding. They had a weapon of their own nearby in case Lologa arrived.
About the same time Lologa started walking down the long driveway towards his home when the neighbour jumped out and tackled him, disarming him and holding on to the machete until police arrived.
Robert recalls lying on the ground in the garage with people trying to keep him awake.
“I was heavily breathing, I was in shock. Then the cops came and they continued to talk to me. I think the reason why they kept doing small talk is to keep me alive, because they know if I go to sleep, that’ll be it.”
Robert was eventually taken to Middlemore Hospital’s emergency department.
“That’s when I started to reflect, once that storm passed and I got time to think. I was like ‘what the f*** happened?’”
While at hospital, it was discovered the wound to his head was about 13cm long. Robert says doctors told him a scan revealed the machete blade stopped about 5cm from his brain.
According to court documents when Lologa was initially spoken to by police he told a constable he intended to kill Robert.
“I want to kill him, I’m not a dangerous person but I want to kill him, I’m going to kill him when I come back, I’m not going to jail.”
When Lologa spoke to the officer in charge he said: “I was going to kill him but he run too fast.
“I was going to kill him and then myself ... my life is over, you don’t even know I’m dangerous, I was going to kill someone tonight”.
Lologa would later plead guilty to attempting to murder Robert and was sentenced to six years in 2010 by Justice White.
At sentencing, Justice White said Lologa had told this probation officer he could not recall everything that happened because of how much alcohol he drank. He said he was angry with Robert for accusing him of hurting his mother. He said he had not hurt her since June 2008.
In a letter to the court Lologa expressed deep remorse and said he “lost control” and “didn’t have time to think”.
It was revealed that he’d had contact with General and Forensic Mental Health Services since 1999 when he heard voices.
“Because of them, you assaulted a friend. You were imprisoned for that assault, and in prison came to believe that people were poisoning your food.”
His last psychiatric admission before the attempted murder was in 2003.
Lologa was prescribed anti-psychotic medication and was “apparently compliant” with taking it but told his probation officer he had stopped taking it prior to the offending.
Lologa’s psychiatrist stressed his alcohol abuse.
“You drink as a coping mechanism. Moreover, you have used cannabis for a long period, which you admit makes you paranoid.”
Justice White said Lologa was a “recidivist offender”, with 47 prior convictions.
The judge accepted the Crown’s submission that “only good fortune – and the bravery of your neighbour – saved your victim’s life”.
“I give little weight to your victim’s provocation. He did threaten to punch you, but did so out of concern for his mother. You have admitted violence against her in the past. Moreover, your response was quite simply out of all proportion.”
It took about three years of rehab for Robert’s hand to function properly again.
At first he was unable to go to the gym, play any sport or even catch a ball. He says he felt fortunate his writing hand was uninjured.
Initially, he had weekly appointments for hand therapy for up to a year before his hand could start to slowly function and he could do strengthening exercises. He later required more surgery.
While the physical impact was clear, Robert says the biggest obstacle he had to overcome was his mental health.
“It took me years to just cope mentally,” he says.
He turned to alcohol and struggled with suicidal thoughts. He was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Looking back, he says aside from time, having a supportive group of friends and a social worker helped him get through it.
He eventually got into working fulltime and went to university in 2012, but says he was still struggling to cope and took six years to graduate with his three-year degree.
Robert was the first person in his family to graduate from university. Two years later he was back studying and got another bachelors degree without failing any papers.
Robert says he has not spoken to Lologa since he tried to kill him. However, in about 2018 he says Lologa tried sending him letters which he threw into a charcoal barbecue. Lologa also tried messaging him on social media, but Robert blocked him.
Then, in May 2023, Robert got a letter in the mail to say Lologa was facing charges of arson and murder.
It was not until he was watching the news with his partner in the kitchen that they connected the dots that Lologa was actually accused of killing five people after setting Loafers Lodge on fire.
Robert says the revelation was exactly what he had feared, that Lologa would one day kill someone. However, he was still “shocked”, and believed Lologa should have been in prison for longer.
Lologa was found guilty on Friday at the end of the five-week jury trial.
Robert says Lologa is a “danger to society” who should never be released from prison.
As the years have gone by, Robert says he has done his best to move on and make a better life for himself.
“I’ve had a couple of friends tell me the best revenge is to do my own thing. I do a lot of travelling, I’ve got two bachelor degrees from university. I think I was using what happened as fuel to not be like him, to not let it keep me down.”
Robert is now a social worker, helping people who grew up just like him.
“I want to help vulnerable people who’ve been in a similar situation as I have because I do not want them to go in a deep downward spiral. I don’t want them to repeat the cycle, I’m trying to get them to break the cycle.”
The now 35-year-old’s relationship with his mother is in his words “very estranged”, with minimal contact, in large part because of what happened.
Going forward, he says he copes best by sticking to a set routine, focusing on a sense of normalcy. He has thoughts of one day doing his Masters and a PhD.
“I think it’s just finding a goal I want to do and try my hardest to accomplish it.”
Asked how he feels towards Lologa, Robert says he has “a lot of hatred”.
“I still haven’t forgiven him. I cannot forgive. I can move on in peace, and do my own thing in life as best as I can, but forgive? I cannot.”
Sitting on his couch, his hat now covering the 13cm scar on his head, Robert ponders the one question he hasn’t been able to escape for almost 16 years.
“I always wonder how I made it. How did I make it out of there? How am I still alive?”
*Not his real name
- RNZ