Te Ariki Poulgrain spent more than 10 weeks on the run. Photo / NZ Police
Te Ariki Poulgrain spent more than 10 weeks on the run. Photo / NZ Police
An Auckland prisoner who escaped custody and spent 10 weeks on the run has been sentenced to 11 months of home detention.
Te Ariki Poulgrain, 24, appeared for sentencing on Thursday afternoon at the Auckland District Court before Judge Keith de Ridder.
The judge said the young man suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, resulting in impulsive behaviours behind most of his offending.
Poulgrain’s ADHD was not properly medicated and he had been in jail “non-stop” since 2015 when he was just 17, the court heard.
“All is not lost,” Judge de Ritter said, saying Poulgrain was now at a crossroads where he could “break the cycle” if given the right assistance to manage his mental health and substance abuse.
He said jail would not address Poulgrain’s issues and sentenced him to 11 months’ home detention.
On June 30, 2021, Poulgrain was being transferred to a medical appointment at the Auckland University optometry clinic in Grafton when he escaped from the back of a van.
He managed to push past Corrections staff after kicking open the back of the van, then ran off down the road near Auckland Hospital and the Domain, still handcuffed.
Poulgrain, then 23, disappeared into the city and managed to elude capture for 10 weeks.
When he was found and arrested in Ōtara some 10 weeks later, he allegedly told police, “I just wanted to see my family. That’s all.”
After his arrest, he was being walked back to his cell on August when he punched a Corrections officer without provocation.
He broke the officer’s nose, and was attempting a second hit when he was stopped.
Poulgrain pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two counts of unlawfully carrying a firearm, and one count each of injuring with intent and escaping lawful custody.
In 2018, the young man was serving time at Auckland’s Paremoremo prison when he was involved in an attack on career criminal and notorious double murderer Graeme Burton, who was stabbed more than 40 times.
Graeme Burton sitting in a wheelchair during his sentencing in the High Court at Wellington in 2007. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He was one of three men involved in the attack, along with Tama Tapine and Siuaki Lisiate, known inside as “JFK” or “Just F***** Krazy”.
Poulgrain was not the ringleader but had more than four years added to his sentence. Burton survived the attack.
