Involvement in a prison riot and subsequent move to the country's only maximum-security prison has been the catalyst for an inmate to turn his life around, a court has heard.
While serving a jail term at Tongariro Rangipo Prison, in the central North Island, 23-year-old Bertram Sturley became involved in a riot which eventually cost taxpayers more than $110,000.
Today at North Shore District Court he had two months added to his current sentence after admitting causing intentional damage, which Judge Roy Wade described as lenient.
While in lockdown on the evening of March 29, 2013, one prisoner smashed his cell window and climbed out, giving him access to the open compound, the judge said.
The man went berserk with a broom handle, smashing several windows and doing significant damage to the guard room, while encouraging other inmates to join him.