A Tongan prisoner who has spent virtually his entire adult life behind bars and murdered two fellow inmates has returned to public attention as a coronial inquest examines how his second victim was placed within his reach.
Siuaki Lisiate murdered Blake Lee in an exercise yard at Auckland Prison in Paremoremo in March 2020.
Lee, a Mongrel Mob affiliate, had arrived from Whanganui Prison only hours before he was attacked by Siuaki, a senior Crips gang member, and other prisoners, RNZ reported.
The inquest before Coroner Alexander Ho is examining Lee’s transfer, placement and death, including whether Corrections properly assessed the danger posed by Siuaki, who already had an extensive record of extreme violence inside prison.
Siuaki has reportedly been involved with the criminal justice system since he was 14 and was first imprisoned at 17. By the time of his sentencing for Lee’s murder in 2021, he had not lived outside prison since 2003 and had accumulated about 25 convictions, many committed while on bail or behind bars.
He was already serving life imprisonment for arranging the 2009 killing of 23-year-old prisoner Tue Faavae when Lee was murdered.
Faavae was strangled with a radio power cord in what the court described as a gang-related revenge killing. Siuaki was sentenced in 2011 to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years.
His violence continued inside Paremoremo.
In May 2018, Siuaki and two other prisoners attacked notorious double murderer Graeme Burton. Siuaki used two improvised knives to stab Burton more than 40 times in the head, face and upper body.
Burton survived but suffered permanent damage to his right eye.
Siuaki pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to preventive detention on 17 March 2020, with a minimum term of five years and two months.
Justice Geoffrey Venning found Siuaki posed a high risk of committing further violence, lacked empathy for those he harmed and had little insight into his offending. His lawyer said Siuaki had become institutionalised after spending most of his life in prison.
Lee was murdered in the same month that Siuaki received the preventive detention sentence.
CCTV footage showed Lee being knocked to the ground before Siuaki repeatedly stabbed him with a makeshift weapon and stomped on his head. Siuaki pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to another term of life imprisonment, with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years.
Justice Simon Moore declined to impose life imprisonment without parole, finding that it would be manifestly unjust because Siuaki was already subject to life imprisonment and preventive detention.
However, the judge acknowledged that the Parole Board might ultimately decide Siuaki should never be released. He will be about 61 when he first becomes eligible to seek parole under the sentence imposed for Lee’s murder.
The current inquest has heard that, despite Siuaki’s history, there was no formal policy in 2020 requiring rival gang members to be kept apart at Paremoremo.
Former prison director David Pattinson accepted during questioning that Siuaki had a history of extreme violence. However, he said Corrections found no evidence that Lee’s murder was gang-related.
That position contrasts with an earlier High Court memorandum in which Siuaki, through his lawyer, said he did not know Lee personally and that the killing arose from continuing gang tensions inside prison.
Lee’s mother, Teresa Absolum, said she wanted Corrections held accountable and rival gang members kept apart.
Current Auckland Prison director Stephen Parr told the inquest that today’s procedures would prevent a newly transferred prisoner from being placed into a mixed exercise yard on the day of arrival.
Parr also acknowledged that screening procedures had not been completed to the required standard on the day Lee was killed. However, he could not say whether proper screening would have detected the weapon Siuaki used.
The inquest continues.
