Paremoremo prison inmate death: Blake John Lee's history of violence

Auckland Prison, at Paremoremo, where an inmate was killed this week. File photo / Glenn Jeffrey

The inmate killed by a fellow prisoner inside Paremoremo Prison yesterday was behind bars for a vicious attack on his partner, which occurred as he held her captive at a Rotorua house for several hours.

Blake John Lee was sentenced to seven years and seven months' jail in March 2019 after a jury found him guilty of two violence charges relating to the 2017 incident, according to a failed appeal.

Lee died after he was attacked at Paremoremo's unit yard about 3pm. Police are investigating his death and Lee's alleged attacker has been put in segregation in the prison management unit.

Twenty-five-year-old Lee, described in the Court of Appeal decision as "firmly entrenched in a gang environment" with a high risk of reoffending, was also convicted in 2013 of the aggravated robbery of two tourists at Waiotapu hot pools near Rotorua.

Lee and two other men set upon a 20-year-old Swiss man and a 26-year-old Korean woman, stomping on and punching them before stealing possessions including a laptop computer and cash, in the 2013 incident, according to the Rotorua Daily Post.

In the 2017 incident, Lee held his partner captive for several hours and beat her, the Crown said at his trial.

As well as being poked through a blanket with an implement similar to a butter knife, the woman also received a full thickness open wound to her right ankle, which also broke a bone.

Lee was convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for the wound. He was also convicted of injuring with intent to injure.

The woman eventually managed to escape through a window, with a neighbour calling emergency services.