The mother of a Mongrel Mob member who died in a car crash says the Wairoa District Council had no issues with her son's headstone design when she showed them it in 2015. Photo / Neil Reid
The mother of a Mongrel Mob member who died in a car crash says the Wairoa District Council had no issues with her son's headstone design when she showed them it in 2015. Photo / Neil Reid
The mother of a Mongrel Mob member killed in an horrific car crash has hit-out at a proposed ban on gang insignia from headstones in a town beset with gang issues.
And the grieving mum says if families of other people buried in Wairoa Cemetery are upset at seeing the Mongrel Mob insignia on the back of her son's large headstone, they should consider relocating their burial plots.
Terry Shane Stone, 31, was one of three Mongrel Mob members to die when the car they were travelling in on the way to a gang party in the Hawke's Bay crashed 125 metres down a gorge and into the Mohaka River in November 2015.
Stone and driver 53-year-old Ronald Rigby – who was later found to have methamphetamine in his system – are now buried at Wairoa Cemetery.
Wairoa District Council mayor Craig Little is backing a proposed bylaw change which would ban the erection of any further headstones in the council-run cemetery featuring gang or any type of "offensive" material. He also said if he had his way, he would have the Mongrel Mob-emblazoned headstones of Stone and Rigby removed.
Stone's mother, Maude Stone, has hit back; saying she followed the regulations when her son was buried in 2015, has labelled the mayor's stand as insensitive and also says if families of others buried at the cemetery find the gang logos upsetting, they should relocate their loved ones so they don't have to look at them.
Terry Shane Stone's mother says her son and two other gang members with gang insignia on their headstones at Wairoa Cemetery should be "left in peace". Photo / Neil Reid
"OK, people go there and see their family [members] . . . but why are they looking at my son's headstone? Why are you looking at it? Just look at your own," Stone told the New Zealand Herald.
"If they're not happy with it, let them move ... move their family members away from that area where he is and then there won't be a problem.
"People go and visit their families, yes there [are Mongrel Mob headstones] there, but they are not hurting anyone. If you don't want to look at his [Terry's headstone], don't look at it . . . walk past it."
Ronald Rigby died along with two of his passengers, including Terry Shane Stone, when the car he was driving crashed 125m down a gorge. Photo / Neil Reid
The Herald revealed the proposed gang insignia ban from headstones last month, with Little saying the current trio were "quite offensive".
He added they were "disrespectful for others".
The proposed bylaw change is set to be opened up for public input soon.
Other issues open for consultation over a rejigged Cemeteries Bylaw include charging an additional burial fee for anyone from outside the Wairoa district and provisions for natural burials to take place; a process which does not use embalming fluid or caskets and bodies are buried directly into the earth, allowing them to decompose naturally.
An angry Stone said the mayor's stance had left her "peed off", criticising him for going public without contacting families of loved ones whose headstones he has commented on.
The back of Ronald Rigby's headstone features Mongrel Mob gang insignia. Photo / Neil Reid
"What gives him [Craig Little] the right to be judge and jury? Who is he? I know he is the mayor of Wairoa, but don't he have better things to do besides worrying about headstones," she said.
"The mayor could at least of talked to the family before he [spoke out]. He could have at least come to see the family . . . not just put it out there. That is just rude."
Stone's headstone – like those of fellow buried Mongrel Mob members Rigby and Craig Arthur Reid – are double-sided.
The front features his face, while the rear side has a large gang insignia.
But his mother said its design had been flagged to council officials prior to his burial.
The back of Craig Arthur Reid's headstone features the Mongrel Mob patch. Photo / Neil Reid
"Because of the size of it I specifically went through the Wairoa District Council to get all the bylaws and what I could put on it ... I even showed them a picture of it [the design]," she said.
"We went through the right channels, we sent the pictures through and they agreed to what was on it as long as there weren't any rude comments or bad things which were disgusting for other people to see. I thought there were no issues, no problems, and that everything was done by the book.
"This is my headstone, my son's headstone . . . I paid for that headstone. I went about it the right way, I followed the laws."
There are currently three headstones in Wairoa Cemetery which feature Mongrel Mob insignia, all which were erected in 2015. Photo / Neil Reid
She said her son "was proud to have his patch", having joined the Mongrel Mob as a teenager.
"That was his thing, not mine. What he did, he did for himself. And he became who he was . . . that is what he wanted to do, that is who he was going to be."
