Auckland airport bus hijacker jailed

Passengers fleeing the hijacked bus. Photo / Al Ronberg

A man who escaped from prison guards and hijacked a bus at Auckland Airport terrifying passengers has today been jailed.

Hopoate Teisina was one of seven prisoners being transferred from Mt Eden prison when he fled from the custody of prison officers at the airport on the afternoon of March 14 last year.

Teisina had told prison guards he needed to use the toilet at the airport. He had been handcuffed to a prison officer and was attached by a steel cord when he entered the cubicle.

But he managed to break the cord by rubbing it between the door and the door frame.

He then tried to steal a taxi before getting onto the bus, which was being driven by a 65-year-old woman.

The driver said in her victim impact statement, read to Manukau District Court today, that passengers had been screaming after Teisina boarded.

The woman was driving the bus carrying 19 passengers when Teisina came on board and said he had a gun.

In her statement, the driver said she was "terrified".

"I could hear passengers screaming at the offender to stop," she told police. "I hope he realises he scared approximately 20 foreign tourists, some of whom had only just arrived in the country."

Judge Roy Wade said the driver received bruising to her back when she was kicked over.

Sentencing Teisina to two years and three months in prison, Justice Wade said he had taken into account the fact Teisina was told on the morning of the hijacking without prior notice that he was to be transported to a prison in Christchurch that day.

This meant his young son would not be able to visit him in prison.

The judge also took into account that Teisina had not planned to hijack the bus in advance and said if he had, the sentence would have been three times longer.

Teisina will be returned to Tonga at the conclusion of his sentence.