Prisoner tells court inmate dragged from cell 'black as'

Auckland Prison at Paremoremo. File photo / Glenn Jeffrey

A prison inmate has described seeing a fellow inmate being dragged from a cell and looking "very black".

The inmate, whose name is suppressed, was today giving evidence at a hearing in North Shore District Court to decide if four inmates from Auckland Prison at Paremoremo should stand trial in relation to the death of Tue Faavae.

Three of the accused men are charged with Faavae's murder, while the fourth is charged with being an accessory after the fact. All four have name suppression.

Murder charges against two other inmates originally accused have been withdrawn.

Faavae, 23, was found dead inside the prison at Paremoremo on March 1. The Crown says he was strangled to death with a radio power cord in a gang-related revenge attack.

The inmate giving evidence today said he had spoken with Faavae on the morning of March 1 and discussed the possibility of swapping his breakfast for cigarettes.

He said the next time he saw Faavae was "when he was being dragged out of a cell by his feet".

The witness said he saw this while sitting alongside a fellow inmate on the landing outside the cells during a period when inmates were allowed outside their cells.

One of the accused, whose cell Faavae emerged from but who had been sitting in the landing at that time, got up and helped drag Faavae out by the other leg. He did not see anybody holding his head.

The witness, who gave evidence via closed circuit video, said Faavae had a very dark appearance.

"I have been at funerals and over two to three days they go black as. That's how he looked."

The witness said he then panicked and went back to his cell as he wanted nothing to do with what was going on.

He said most of the inmates in his block of six cells were Tongan and members of the Crips gang, and a number of people in an adjoining group of six cells were Samoan and members of the Bloods gang.

The hearing is expected to end tomorrow, when two Justices of the Peace will decide if there is enough evidence for the matter to go to trial.

- NZPA