Nearly a year ago, ring-leader of the Mongrel Mob group John-Boy Toa Rakete, 32, was jailed for three years 11 months; 40-year-old Donald Noel Collins-Roberts got three years five months and 20-year-old Hunter Joel Kerr was sentenced to eight months’ home detention and 100 hours’ community work – all on an array of violence charges.
Details of that hearing have been suppressed until this morning when the final member of the group 39-year-old Jordon James Ataria – who also admitted a string of driving charges - was locked up for two years two months.
Late on March 2, 2024, a bunch of students were attending a 21st birthday party in North Dunedin, readying themselves for a trip into town to continue the revelry.
Three vehicles arrived outside - one of them was not a taxi.
Four patched Mongrel Mob members entered the property in an “intimidating and confrontational way”, leaving a 3-year-old child in the car.
The students tried to placate the unwelcome guests with an offer of seafood but it was unsuccessful.
Collins-Roberts demanded the victims hand over their socks.
“If you’re not going to give us your socks, we want your bitches,” he said.
After a five-minute stay, the gang members left but with a warning – they would be back the following night for a fight.
The co-defendants followed his lead.
A summary of facts detailed how Rakete punched the first victim then turned his attention to the second, who had intervened.
“Rakete king hit [the victim] with such force to his head, it throws him backwards, causing him to fall, landing on his back on the tar seal.”
Collins-Roberts kicked one man in the head then followed it up by “swiftly, vigorously” stomping him.
The defendants forced the four victims down the street.
One of them raised his hands, gesturing for the attackers to stop but instead, 20-year-old Hunter Joel Kerr punched him in the head.
“The group continue to be aggressive towards [two of the victims], pushing and swinging punches in their direction as they muster them down the street,” court documents said.
Another of the men held up his hand in a gesture of surrender but Rakete showed no mercy.
After cornering him by a car, he and two others aimed a flurry of blows at the victim’s head and body.
The confrontation only ended when sirens could be heard and the gang members raced back to their vehicle to flee the scene.
All four of the victims were concussed, the court heard.
“I’ve watched that video a few times . . . it’s really sickening to see some of the violence that took place,” Judge David Robinson, who conducted last year’s sentencing, said.
Judge Nevin Dawson said it was “a pack type of thuggery”.
“You did not hold back,” he told Ataria.
Rakete said he was simply taking someone home on the night in question and only launched the attack because he felt the students were “pumped up” and challenging his gang associates.
He claimed he felt instant regret for the violence, but that was rejected by Judge Robinson.
“Having seen the bravado what was displayed following the attack before getting into the car, I really can’t see any indication of regret,” he said.
Collins-Roberts, a veteran offender with 56 convictions to his name over more than 20 years, said he had unwittingly followed his mates into the student flat and had only inflicted any blows to protect them.
“I watched you get out of the car and move quickly into this situation,” Judge Robinson said.
“It was clearly evident your colleagues were on top of the victims and dominating with violence.”
Collins-Roberts said he would not hit anyone who was on the ground but the judge said CCTV footage clearly showed him doing just that.
The defendant said he would remain loyal to the gang.
Kerr was dealt with more leniently, primarily because of his age, but the judge said it would be a final chance.
Counsel Karlena Lawrence said her client wanted to live a pro-social life but acknowledged it would be difficult to leave the Mongrel Mob.
Ataria’s counsel Matthew Boniface said the birth of the defendant’s child had given him a new perspective and a motivation to “become a productive member of society”.
But Ataria told Probation in an interview that he had no intention to leave the gang, with which he had been connected since the age of 14, and rejected the notion it was a negative factor in his life.
Rakete will see the Parole Board in October.
Collins-Roberts had nine months added to his prison term earlier this year for another group attack committed at the prison.
