Bashed cabbie tells of boot ordeal

face with a tissue when shown photographs of his injuries.

Shemon said he had been drifting in and out of consciousness in the boot of his taxi on August 9, 2017. He feared for his life, being driven around listening to more than two people talk in the car.

When the car stopped and the boot was opened Shemon pretended to be unconscious as someone took keys from his hand, and his bag.

He heard people arguing and swearing, saying they had to go otherwise the car would explode and other people would see.

He smelled smoke. He told the court it was lucky he was conscious otherwise the car might have caught fire with him in it.

He got out of the boot and saw big flames coming from the driver’s seat. He was able to put out the flames with his jacket.

Shemon said he had been struck while out of the taxi in an industrial area at the bottom of Ngauranga Gorge, Wellington, about 2.30am.

He woke up in the boot of the taxi. Shemon thought he was in the boot for about two hours.

He said he thought there had been less than $100 in the car.

He was left cut and bruised, and there were cracks in his back bone, he said. His back was still painful.

He had driven taxis in Wellington for eight or nine years and the taxi he drove belonged to his brother.

A jury of eight men and four women was told one person, Bronson Boudine Samson, had pleaded guilty to charges relating to the attack on Shemon.

But Jade Richard Barton, 25, a builder, is on trial, having pleaded not guilty to six charges including kidnapping and arson.

The jury has also heard about an incident the day before Shemon was attacked, when two foreign students were robbed on the beach at Petone. Barton and Samson pleaded guilty to that robbery, the jury has been told.

The trial continues.