KEY POINTS:
The Dunedin boy accused of attempting to kill a policeman after a car chase in the Bay of Plenty at the weekend wants to join the Mongrel Mob, his mother says.
The 14-year-old, who for legal reasons cannot be named, had grown up with the gang and wanted to be accepted as a prospect, she said yesterday.
"He does want [to be] a prospect, but the Mongrel Mob isn't happy [about the allegations]. It goes against their beliefs down here," she said.
The woman, who also cannot be named, contacted the Otago Daily Times because she wanted to detail her son's troubled past and his relationship with Child, Youth and Family Services.
She said the boy was "shattered" and "heartbroken" about the events that led to his court appearance.
She could not afford to go to Tauranga to see him. Friends had suggested CYFS, which ultimately sent her son from Dunedin to Ruatoki via a youth justice facility, should pay to get her there.
The Mongrel Mob would be there for him, she said. "They'd probably be the closest thing to family I can get to support him up there at the moment."
Her boy had been at the Ruatoki camp for four weeks, she said. He absconded for a weekend, about two weeks into his time there, to see his grandmother in Auckland.
He ran away the second time because he was being threatened by youths affiliated to Black Power, who wanted to "deal" to the Mongrel Mob after the fatal driveby shooting of toddler Jhia Harmony Te Tua in Wanganui, she said.
She would never have agreed to CYFS' sending her son to Ruatoki had she known other gang affiliates were at the camp. CYFS had assured her no one gang dominated, she said.
Her son was scared of being stabbed and had not slept for two days before running away. He was just a scared boy - even if he was a "bad boy" - trying to get home.
The mother pointed the finger at CYFS for what had happened.
"I blame CYFS for what they have put him through, for bouncing him from place to place. It shouldn't have been done."
- OTAGO DAILY TIMES
