Dunedin District Court. PHOTO: ODT FILES After a Southern man became obsessed with an escort, he trapped her in his car and threatened to kill her, a court has heard. Dick Kahatu Keefe-Wilson, 30, appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after earlier pleading guilty to threatening to kill, assaulting a female, wilful damage and theft. The crimes came after an offence-free stint for the defendant. But in 2017, a methed-up Keefe-Wilson was shot by police after he drove his car at people and brandished a gun at a North Island campground. Yesterday, the court heard that the defendant met his most recent victim through his commercial exchanges with her as an escort. In the few weeks they knew each other, Keefe-Wilson displayed ‘‘obsessive behaviour’’ towards the woman, a police summary said. He repeatedly called and texted her despite her protest and frequented her workplace, waiting for hours outside asking for her. On March 13, the defendant and the victim were travelling from Dunedin to Invercargill. As the defendant drove through Balclutha, he accused the woman of cheating on him, even though the pair were not in a relationship. Keefe-Wilson took the sim card from the woman’s phone and snapped it. As the road trip continued the defendant became increasingly enraged and began yelling and screaming at the victim. When he stopped at an ATM in Gore, the woman got out and walked for about five hours to avoid getting back in the vehicle, but eventually did due to the fear and pressure she felt. Keefe-Wilson then drove her to a dark, dead-end, rural road where he turned off the lights and locked the doors. He then punched the seat and headrest repeatedly, before saying to the woman ‘‘no-one gives a f ... about you’’. ‘‘If you disrespect me again, I will shoot you.’’ ‘‘I’ll take you down to the Mongrel Mob pad.’’ The woman suggested they should get fuel, so the defendant drove to a petrol station in Gore where she fled and asked an employee for help. Yesterday, counsel Meg Scally said her client’s offending occurred after a drug relapse, but he had been undertaking rehabilitative courses in custody and hoped to get support once released. ‘‘Unfortunately, it has been a very steep learning curve,’’ she said. Judge Hermann Retzlaff noted the victim would have felt ‘‘isolated’’ and ‘‘vulnerable’’, and he highlighted that the incident continued for a long time. The judge sentenced Keefe-Wilson to 14 months’ imprisonment. In 2017 Keefe-Wilson got into an argument with his then-partner at Vinegar Hill campground in the Manawatū-Whanganui Region the NZ Herald reported. He drove his car at her before picking up a .22 calibre rifle and pointing it at a woman. He forced his way into a fleeing campervan and when it encountered police, Keefe-Wilson aimed his gun at the officers. One fired a shot which hit the defendant’s arm, causing him to drop the weapon. The Independent Police Conduct Authority later found the officer was justified in his actions. felicity.dear@odt.co.nz
