Joshua Terrey's family outside the Hamilton District Court, from left, his father, Peter Terrey, sisters Gypsy and Ngapania Anderson, son Kee-lin, 17, daughter Myah, and Cindy Terrey. Photo / Belinda Feek
Joshua Terrey's family outside the Hamilton District Court, from left, his father, Peter Terrey, sisters Gypsy and Ngapania Anderson, son Kee-lin, 17, daughter Myah, and Cindy Terrey. Photo / Belinda Feek
The father of a man found dead in a suburban park four years ago has told his son’s attackers he “just wants the truth” about what happened so he and his family can have closure.
No one has been charged over his death but Akasha Kaihana-King, 26, and her father, Patrick Cousins, 62, earlier admitted charges of kidnapping, assault with a weapon and demands to steal in the Hamilton District Court in relation to an incident hours before he was found.
A third woman, from Waihi, is defending her charges and is going on trial next year.
Court documents released to NZME as Kaihana-King was sentenced for her role, show a storage container belonging to the unnamed Waihi woman was broken into three months before his death, with a number of tools stolen.
The woman is alleged to have deemed Terrey the main suspect but didn’t report the break-in to police.
On November 30, 2019, Terrey travelled from Whakatāne to Hamilton to see his 4-year-old son.
Later that day, he contacted Kaihana-King to get drugs off her and they organised to meet at the Rodney St, Nawton, property she shared with her father.
When he was on his way, Kaihana-King told her father who then contacted the third accused. Terrey was held there until the woman - who is alleged to have brought a baseball bat - arrived.
The woman is alleged to have confronted Terrey and struck him multiple times around the body before taking his car keys and phone.
He was freed just after 1am.
Soon after, he ended up at the property of a relative of an associate but was told to leave.
Terrey’s movements from then until his body was found near a garden at the Western Community Centre on Hyde Ave at 1.30pm are unknown.
Joshua Terrey's family, including his father Peter Terry, far right, outside the Hamilton District Court after the sentencing of Akasha Kaihana-King last month for her role in his kidnapping. Photo / Belinda Feek
‘He must have been terrified’
In his victim statement, his father Peter Terrey, said he and Joshua’s mother, Lynn, “anguished over what happened to Joshua and what he must have gone through that day”.
Learning from police the details of what happened to his son, “made me want to vomit”, he said.
“Joshua grew up in our house with zero violence. He must have been terrified,” angry that the group set out to dish out “vigilante actions”.
Now, they just wanted the truth.
“All we want is the truth so we can get some closure.”
Their grief had been aggravated by the death of Joshua’s mother last October before she could see the court process through.
“This crime was so unnecessary. We know our Joshua was innocent.”
Counsel Kerry Burroughs said during sentencing that Kaihana-King and Terrey had a connection, not because they loved each other, but due to their use of methamphetamine.
She said the mother-of-two had struggled through life; she struggled through school and still can’t read. She moved to Australia aged 20 and then was asked to move back to help care for her mother, but then she couldn’t find a job.
“Drugs become the mainstay of her existence,” Burroughs said. “It’s not a good life.”
As for the night Terrey died, Burroughs said it wasn’t pre-planned and his client’s knowledge of “what was going to happen ... is limited”.
She had not previously appeared before the court and he urged Judge Crayton to hand down a home detention sentence.
Crown prosecutor Amy Alcock had concerns about Kaihana-King’s ability to complete home detention, however, Judge Philip Crayton said she would be judicially monitored.
If that failed, she would go to prison.
Judge Crayton noted she had “significant insight” about her actions that night.
He accepted her circumstances were difficult; she was effectively raising her two children on her own in emergency accommodation with support from an aunt.
Judge Crayton said it “wasn’t a court of retribution” and given she was willing to engage in rehabilitation, and had no criminal history, he agreed not to send her to jail.
“But if you do not comply ... and lose the motivation that you have expressed to stay out of trouble ... then we will be meeting again and you will be going to prison.”
Kaihana-King was sentenced to 10 months’ home detention.
Asked about her sentence outside court, Terrey’s sister, Ngapania Anderson, was shocked Kaihana-King wasn’t sent to jail.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for eight years and been a journalist for 19.
