Ex-constable who beat prisoner remanded to jail

Alexander Grant

A former South Auckland police officer is behind bars after being convicted of repeatedly punching a drunk, handcuffed prisoner in the back of a patrol car.

Judge Simon Lockhart, QC, remanded Alexander Grant in custody yesterday for sentence after he was found guilty in the Manukau District Court of injuring Manurewa man Hemi Koia with intent in July 2003.

The court heard this week how the 32-year-old arrested, pepper-sprayed and handcuffed Mr Koia after being called to his house to deal with a fight in the early hours.

Grant placed a verbally abusive Mr Koia in the back seat of the patrol car and asked him how it felt now he was not the one in control. The constable then punched and elbowed Mr Koia up to 20 times, at one stage knocking him unconscious and leaving him bleeding from the nose.

During the beating, Constable Wayne Mead, who had been on the job for only a year, sat to Mr Koia's right, disgusted at what his more senior colleague was doing.

"I was shocked and pretty distressed at the time. To be honest I thought [Mr Koia] was dead."

In the driver's seat, Constable Carlye Rees was just as shocked. She could hear "thudding" from the back seat. When she turned around, she saw Grant's fists connecting with Mr Koia's face and upper body.

At one stage, she looked in the rear-vision mirror to see Constable Mead pressed up against the door looking as if he wanted to "crawl out of the vehicle".

"He was right up against the side of the vehicle and it just looked like if that door could have opened he would have got out."

Neither junior constable reported the incident, saying they were new in the job and did not know what to do. The allegations eventually came to light last year.

On October 26, 2005, two senior officers went to Grant's Remuera home to talk to him. They then conducted a videotaped interview during which Grant admitted losing control and punching Mr Koia four to five times.

By that stage, Grant already knew he was in trouble with his employers - and not for the first time.

Eleven days earlier, police tried to pull him over after noticing him speeding along Orakei Rd in his mother-in-law's Porsche. He led them on a chase, during which he hit a fence and drove on the wrong side.

When he turned into a drive, he smelled of alcohol, was slurring his words and was found to be two times over the legal limit.

In court, he said he was suffering from stress, part of which was due to dealing with a murder investigation in the Criminal Investigation Branch which he transferred to a year earlier. He was attending Alcohol Anonymous to deal with his problems.

Grant was convicted, fined and disqualified from driving for eight months after pleading guilty to driving with excess breath alcohol, reckless driving and failing to stop for police.

But while he was happy to plead guilty to that incident, he opted to defend himself against Mr Koia's allegations.

Taking the stand this week, he said he was simply trying to get Mr Koia under control.

"Had I realised that I'd hurt Mr Koia in any way, I would have made some attempt to at least cover it up, I wouldn't have driven him to Papakura Police Station to be viewed by a large number of people," he told the jury.

But the jurors did not buy Mr Grant's version of events.

They adjourned for lunch and returned to the courtroom at 2.15pm to find him guilty of injuring Mr Koia with intent. The charge carries a penalty of up to five years' jail. Grant, who resigned from the police last year, will be sentenced this month.