Man tells court of kidnap and 16-hour beating

Dawson Reihana chewed his way to freedom after being bashed, punched and stomped for hours in an alleged gang kidnapping.

The 35-year-old told his story at Christchurch Hospital as he lay heavily bandaged in bed hours after escaping a Mongrel Mob house in Bowenvale Ave, in the affluent Christchurch suburb of Cashmere.

Video of Reihana in hospital was played yesterday, the third day of the trial in the High Court in Christchurch of seven men with links to the Aotearoa chapter of the Mongrel Mob.

Reihana, who was giving evidence by closed circuit television, has links with the gang’s Notorious chapter, the Crown says.

When recounting the events on August 8 and 9 last year, he told police two gang members had taken his cellphone and had contacted his friends demanding money and drugs in exchange for his release.

He said he was hurt that the people contacted had not tried to get him out, during a kidnap and beating that lasted about 16 hours.

Before the court, after pleading not guilty to all charges, are Matthew Joshua Mulvey, 35; Leon Delshannon Turner, 41, builder; Peter Damian Gilbert, 46, concrete worker; August Keefe, 57; Mathew James Rowe, 41, bricklayer; Jason Phillip Reweti, 35, labourer; and Dylan Raymond Shannon Corbin, 27. All are charged with kidnapping Reihana.

Mulvey, Turner and Gilbert are charged with wounding him with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. All except Keefe are charged with injuring Reihana with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Reihana said he was beaten with hammers and knuckledusters for hours, punched and stomped, and his hands and ankles were bound. Eventually, about 3am, the beating stopped and people left him to sleep. The man left to guard him – the Crown says it was Reweti – fell asleep on the other side of the room.

Reihana said he chewed on the tape wound around his wrists.

He hid the pieces of chewed-off tape in a nearby drawer.

He worked for an hour to get his eyes open because they were swollen shut from the beating.

When he got free, he noticed a wire leading on to a bed next to him. He pulled it quietly and found there was a cellphone on the end of it. He called 111 twice.

The police could not find him using a GPS system but they got him to describe the route taken when he was driven to the address, which was the second place he had been detained and attacked.

Police then headed into the 1km-radius area where the cellphone was located, and surrounded a known Mob house in Bowenvale Ave before Reihana made his way out, to be taken to hospital by ambulance.

Reihana told of being invited to an address in Ajax St, Shirley, the previous day by Mulvey.

They had coffee and talked before Mulvey, Turner and Gilbert attacked him with hammers.

Reihana told the trial: ‘‘They attacked me for hours.

‘‘They threatened disgusting things to my girlfriend, or wanting money from my friends, and wanting anything I had. There were so many of them, I was overwhelmed.’’

The trial is continuing.