A prisoner found guilty of kidnapping and assaulting a female prison guard in 2006 is appealing his conviction.
Jeremy William Mataira, 49, was found guilty in 2008 of by an Auckland District Court jury of assault with intent to commit sexual violation, kidnapping, assault and assault with a weapon.
He was accused of barricading himself in a storeroom with the prison guard at Auckland Prison at Paremoremo for three hours in September 2006, where she was blindfolded and her feet were bound.
The siege ended when armed police stormed into the room, throwing stun grenades and using tear gas to disable Mataira.
Mataira said at a Court of Appeal hearing today that the judge in his Auckland District Court trial had not acted appropriately towards him and that he had wrongfully been denied his request to dismiss his lawyer during the trial.
The three Court of Appeal judges reserved their decision.
