Vigilantes to be charged by mob member

Press, 16 August 1988, Page 7

Vigilantes to be charged by mob member

PA Auckland A Mongrel Mob member, Tuuta Ngarimu, says he will lay charges against about 60 vigilantes who stalked him outside Paremoremo Prison with softball bats and other weapons.

Mr Ngarimu said most of the group which confronted him were prison officers.

The seven complaints, to be laid with the Takapuna police, are threatening to kill, arson, possession of offensive weapons, wilful damage, theft and unlawful assembly. The police had to force their way through a crowd to get him after he was surrounded by the group, said Mr Ngarimu. They shouted “we will

cut your black head off” and “we will get you”. Ngarimu appeared in the North Shore District

Court yesterday charged with obstructing a constable, car conversion and theft, from incidents in July. He asked for an interpreter so his case could be heard in Maori before he would enter not guilty pleas. Judge Pat Browne remanded Ngarimu until Wednesday after an eider, Mr Eddy McLeod, opened

his appearance with a short prayer.

Ngarimu said after his appearance that he would ask the police for an identity parade since he knew most of the faces in the vigilante group. The incident had made those protesting at conditions inside the prison more determined to stay, he said, but it would not lead to retaliation action from the Mongrel Mob. “We do not fight violence with violence.”