Waikeria riot offender Taimana Soames gets extra jail time for assault in prison

The high-security wing at Waikeria Prison suffered $50m worth of damage during the five-day riot over the 2020/2021 New Year. Photo / Brett Phibbs

A prisoner involved in the destructive Waikeria Prison riot has been in trouble again, this time by bashing a fellow inmate in an unprovoked attack.

The victim was in the middle of a workout in the exercise yard at Spring Hill prison in March last year when Taimana Soames and another inmate approached him.

He stepped towards the pair and, for no apparent reason, the men delivered him a vicious beating.

As a result, Soames was in the Hamilton District Court this week for sentencing on a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Judge Glen Marshall had to decide how much extra prison time to give him, given Soames was still serving eight years and two months for his role in the fiery riot between December 29, 2020, and January 3, 2021.

Corrections officers at Waikeria faced flame-dripped roofing and smashed glass that rained down on them as they battled to free prisoners trapped in their cells during the five-day riot that caused more than $50 million in damage.

Seventeen disgruntled prisoners scrambled on to the roof of the high-security wing after smashing down doors and doing everything they could to prevent prison staff from helping other prisoners still in their cells, as an argument in an exercise yard escalated to the point that resulted in most of the unit being burned to the ground.

Soames defended all 21 of his charges but a jury ultimately found him guilty of 15.

‘Kicked, punched’

In his latest offending, as they greeted the victim in the exercise yard, Soames’ co-offender immediately struck him in the face, causing him to stumble.

The pair then quickly threw multiple punches at his head which sent the victim to the ground where they also began kicking him.

The victim was unable to defend himself and as the barrage of kicks and punches rained down on him, a third inmate ran over and kicked him several times before running off.

Corrections staff arrived and told them to stop, but they ignored them.

It only came to a halt after the assailants were both pepper-sprayed.

The victim was left with a split lip and a fractured forearm and covered in bruises.

Crown solicitor James Lewis urged Judge Marshall to issue a jail term of around 18 months as the attack occurred in a prison setting and was “violence offending on top of earlier violence offending”.

‘He makes no excuses’

But Soames' counsel, Bolivia Newton, took umbrage at that suggestion.

“What you have here is entirely different offending.

“The only similarity is that it also happened in a prison environment ... the Crown are attempting to draw an association that’s just not there.”

She urged Judge Marshall to issue 30% credit for Soames’ “harrowing” cultural report, which canvasses his background, despite already getting credit for it in his earlier High Court sentencing.

“Mr Soames has clearly had a difficult background and that does not change regardless of whether he received a discount for it in 2023 or not.”

He was now at Whanganui prison and hoped to soon get a spot in its Māori Focus Unit.

“He’s still a relatively young man at age 29. He knows he’s not coming out of prison any time soon.

“It appears that Mr Soames' has real insight into his offending and in his own way has expressed remorse.

“He makes no excuses, he’s accepted responsibility from a very early stage.”

Judge Marshall ultimately settled on an additional 14 months in prison, giving Soames some discount for his background and his positive pre-sentence report, which showed “some hope at the end of the tunnel”.

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.