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A Court of Appeal decision has revealed the brutal tactics used by a gang to punish a man they believed informed on them.
The court decision outlined how a man had a finger severed by two torturers who refused to give it back, opting to add it to a collection of digits and ears, The Dominion Post reported.
The man, who was punished for "narking", had been given the choice of losing his finger or his tongue.
Moments before the victim was made to hold a large knife over his right little finger and gang prospect Michael Robert Brooks smashed down on it with a sledgehammer, the man had begged not to be deformed, offering money to stave off the attack.
But gang boss Terrence Austin McFarland said it was "either his finger or his tongue", ordering the terrified man to take a hands-on role in the amputation.
Both men were jailed in September last year for maiming the victim - McFarland, 45, for eight years, and Brooks, 35, for six years and eight months. They appealed against their convictions and sentences at a hearing in July.
Justice Terence Arnold has dismissed the appeals, ruling that their jail sentences will stand.
The amputation happened in West Auckland.
- NZPA
