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A man was tortured for 12 hours, shot in both feet and had his little finger amputated with pruning shears in a crime that has been compared to a Quentin Tarantino movie.
Liam Hourigan and Henry Enoka Kea were convicted in Auckland High Court on Tuesday for their involvement in kidnapping and torture that only ended when the man got out of a moving car.
The victim’s ordeal included burning her naked body with a blowtorch, threats of castration, putting out cigarettes on her eyelids, and beatings.
Crown prosecutor Henry Steele said a judge had compared it to a Quentin Tarantino movie.
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON / Stuff
Judge Sarah Katz described the crimes as barbaric and cruel.
On Tuesday, Hourigan and Kea appeared in Auckland High Court.
Judge Katz sentenced Hourigan to 12 years and seven months in prison and Kea to 10 years and six months.
The Court heard that Hourigan lured the victim to a New Lynn home in November of last year.
When the man arrived, Hourigan greeted him and invited him in.
But inside, four other men, including Kea, were waiting.
They grabbed the man and kept him on the ground, took off his clothes and stole his wallet, keys and phone.
Hourigan took a silenced .22 caliber rifle and pressed it against the back of the man’s neck before they tied him up and shoved a shirt into his mouth.
They then beat and kicked him while he was lying on the ground.
The beating continued for about two hours as Hourigan accused him of stealing thousands of dollars from another person and demanded to know where the money was.
Hourigan threatened to burn the man alive and cut off his penis if he didn’t start talking.
So the men decided to head west.
David White / Stuff
Liam Hourigan appearing in Auckland High Court.
They took the man to his own car, put him in a footwell at the rear, and drove to Whenuapai. He was continuously beaten and kicked during the trip.
Upon reaching a building, they pulled the man out of the car and sat him in a chair before one of the men shot him in the right foot.
Still demanding to know where the money was, Hourigan took a blowtorch and began burning the man’s arm, back, chest, legs, and stomach.
He also took a steel object and hit the man on the head.
The man was also shot in the left foot.
Hourigan tried to use a pair of scissors to cut off the man’s left little finger and when unsuccessful, another man went off to find something else.
He returned with a pair of pruning shears and Hourigan amputated the man’s finger.
The man was repeatedly told that they would burn him alive. Unidentified liquid was sprayed on his face and cigarettes were used to burn his eyelids and shoulder.
Sometime later, the man was placed in another car and driven to Piha by a lone driver who put child locks on the doors.
But the man managed to release the rope and climb to the front of the car and escape.
He was found by a member of the public and taken to the hospital.
David White / Stuff
Henry Kea appearing in Auckland High Court.
Victim advisor Ruth Money read the man’s victim impact statement in court, describing his attackers as “pathetic methamphetamine bosses.”
“If it weren’t for saving my life, jumping out of my own car, after freeing myself from the ropes tied by fools, I wouldn’t be writing this. They would have burned me alive, according to the criminals. “
He said that every morning he wakes up to find a finger is missing.
“Why shouldn’t it have 10 fingers and be covered in scars? Why can they choose how I look? “
The man said he had suicidal thoughts after the attack.
Money also read statements from the man’s parents who were viewing the sentence by audiovisual link from abroad.
His mother said she did not recognize her own son when she first saw him in intensive care after the attack.
“His face is more swollen than ever I imagine a face to swell, bruised, bloody and burned, huge bandages covering the oozing burns and the finger that has been amputated.”
She said that as he got closer, he was swearing and screaming, believing that he was still being tortured.
She described her anger at seeing one of the defendants smiling in court in previous appearances and making gang posters, at one point greeting a girl, presumably her daughter.
“I am incredulous that you can show emotion to this child after coldly torturing my son, my son.”
Hourigan was also sentenced for a vaporizer store fire in Epsom that required 13 fire crews to respond and caused $ 450,000 in damage.
Judge Katz said that a month after the kidnapping, when the police caught up with Hourigan, there was a high-speed chase.
Hourigan drove 130 km / h near elementary schools before hitting the highway and reaching a speed of 200 km / h before abandoning his car.
The police eventually caught him and it was discovered that he had two loaded guns.
The judge said Hourigan had a history that included family violence and drug exposure at a young age.
Kea was a second-generation gang member and had been in the care of the state since his teens.
Judge Katz took time off of their sentences for their early guilty pleas, but ordered that they must serve half their time in jail before they are eligible for parole.
Two other men are still in court and another has already been sentenced.
