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A man involved in a white supremacist kidnapping two years ago was jailed today for ignoring the directives of the court.
Benjamin Peter McPadden, 20, of Petone, Wellington, was one of three men convicted last April of kidnapping Canadian tourist Jeremie Kawerninski.
He had been sentenced to 250 hours' community service and 18 months' supervision in August, when Justice Jillian Mallon noted he had failed to complete a previous community-based sentence and warned him he would go to prison if he did not comply with his conditions.
Last week, McPadden appeared before Justice Ron Young in the Wellington High Court for sentence review, after completing only 35.5 hours of his 250-hour sentence.
His lawyer, Ian Hard, said McPadden had been subjected to death threats while at the community work centre.
McPadden told the court a man had come up to him and said he was going to kill him.
"He said `you're f-d'," McPadden said. "He called me a nark."
McPadden had been scared for his life, Mr Hard said.
Mr Hard urged Justice Young to consider a home-based sentence for his client, saying he was now employed and was trying to get on with his life.
He said prison would be particularly tough on McPadden, as the same people who had threatened him outside prison would make life hard for him inside.
Under cross-examination from Crown prosecutor Grant Burston, McPadden admitted he was also sentenced to 200 hours' community work in March last year.
He had completed only 19 hours of that sentence.
"That wasn't because of any threats," Mr Burston said.
"It's because you decide whether you want to turn up or not."
Justice Young said McPadden had essentially ignored what the sentencing judge had said.
What was the point of courts giving final warnings to offenders if they did not stick by them, he asked.
"People will never take the courts credibly," he said.
Justice Young said McPadden had not given a reasonable excuse for not attending his community work centre, and he would not consider a home-based sentence.
Although McPadden's role in Mr Kawerninski's kidnap had been "modest," it had been a serious and vicious kidnapping, aggravated robbery and assault of an innocent tourist, with no provocation.
He said the sentencing judge had "indulged" McPadden by sentencing him to community work.
"You had a reasonable opportunity to show that you had changed. To show that you could do your sentence and move on. But you chose to ignore that opportunity.
"You foolishly failed to read the signals that if you weren't going to do your community work you were going to prison."
McPadden was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
- NZPA
