WARNING: This story contain an image that may be disturbing for some people
Jamie Angus is the first to admit he's no angel after serving jail time for assault and drug dealing in New Zealand and across the ditch.
However, after a violent beating which resulted in his bloody and unconscious body being dumped on the front lawn of his Gerse St home in Whanganui East, he's now living in fear of gangs - the Hell Angels in particular.
Simple tasks like heading out for a walk as part of his physical rehabilitation from the attack leave him fearing for his life.
"I look down, forward, in front of me, and in every house and in every car. I have got to because someone could pull over and beat me up and I wouldn't know who they were."
"Even when I hear Harley's go pass up the street, I'm up at my window waiting for them to come down the road.
"The fear is there every day."
Whanganui is no stranger to the ravages of gang violence and intimidation, which was the catalyst for its district council imposing a bylaw prohibiting gang insignia from the city's urban area in 2009.
The bylaw was enabled by an Act of Parliament. Anybody violating it faced a fine of up to $2000. The Act also gave police powers of arrest, search and seizure to aid in its enforcement.
The Hells Angels challenged the law, less than 12 months after its introduction, and the High Court ruled it invalid and unlawful.
While the district's police commander has refused to comment about threats and intimidation being used to stop witnesses coming forward, New Zealand's leading authority on gangs and a former high-ranking police officer both say it's common practice in the underworld.
Angus, now 42, moved out of the town as a teenager and believes a statement he made to police about an assault 20 years ago could have been the motivation for the violent attack.
"My co-offender said to me 'don't you ever come back to Whanganui because one of them is going to kill you'," he told Open Justice in an exclusive interview.
While police have yet to identify those responsible for the beating, four people have been charged with perverting the course of justice for refusing to co-operate with investigating officers.
Three men were sentenced in Palmerston North yesterday and a women was sentenced in Whanganui earlier this month.
Judge Lance Rowe told the trio they had sacrificed the welfare of a gravely injured man and the need to hold his assailants to account to protect the ethos of a gang.
"By choosing to protect the secrecy of a gang you chose to protect extreme violence and cowardice."
Standing at 1.9m tall, weighing more than 100kg and working in forestry, Angus was physically fit, confident and outgoing, but the vicious assault changed his life forever.
Angus suffered permanent brain damage effecting his memory and physical movement, as a result of the prolonged beating that police say took place at the Hells Angels pad on Kaikokopu Rd, Aramoho, in the early hours of September 19, 2020.
After Angus' body was dumped by two men at 3.40am he was taken to Whanganui Hospital, where he remained in a coma for five weeks, before being transferred to a severe head injury rehabilitation facility in Wellington.
Paramedics described his injuries as life-threatening - he was unresponsive, with blood covering his face and pooling under his neck. He had a gash to his jaw with exposed muscle visible and cerebrospinal fluid seeping from his right ear.
Angus had been drinking with two of the four people who were later arrested, earlier in the night and considered one of them a close friend.
After leaving Whanganui, he spent the next 20 years moving around New Zealand and Australia driving trucks and working in mines.
Angus served two and a half years, of a four and a half year sentence, in an Australian jail for selling methamphetamine before returning to New Zealand and eventually back to Whanganui to visit his family.
The threat not to return always remained in the back of his mind but he thought after two decades he would be alright.
Angus had visited the clubhouse once before the fateful night and knew the workmate he was drinking with had connections within the gang, but never suspected anything bad would happen.
His mother Andrea was called by the hospital about 4.30am and arrived to find her boy fighting for his life, beaten, bloodied and bruised.
"I bawled. I just collapsed, I couldn't believe it," she says.
"Considering the size of him I thought how could anybody do that to him."
Doctors told her Angus' brain was swelling and they had serious concerns.
"They didn't want me to see him when I first got there, because he was all sliced up, until they had stitched him up.
"He looked like he had been stomped on and it looked like there was a knuckle-duster to the head."
Angus says doctors made it clear the injuries he suffered were not the result of an accident.
"They said I had been tortured because I had big marks under my arms where I had been tied up and beaten."
The attack has left Angus with no recollection of the night and a permanently impaired memory, so he has not been able to assist police with their inquiries.
"I can remember being a kid but I can't remember being in a coma and I can't remember two weeks before that night, it's just gone.
"I can't remember who beat me up or anything."
Andrea, who gave up her job to become Angus' fulltime caregiver, says not initially knowing how he would recover was the hardest part.
"He wasn't my big strong son, he was like a child.
"I could tell when we went to visit him he was not himself, not the Jamie I knew."
After having her son home for a year, Andrea knows things will never be the same.
"He was outgoing and always on the move. To see him lying on his bed and to live for physio, he is not where he was and he never will be.
"We used to pussy-foot around, but he has got a brain injury."
She's lost 14kg because of the stress and worry, but doesn't hold back when asked what she thinks of the people protecting those responsible for the vicious violence.
"They're gutless wonders. I'm angry because they know more.
"They are lying to cover other people's arses."
Angus is well aware why they've never spoken up.
"What happened to me, is what will happen to them or way worse.
"That's why no-one is saying nothing and that's why they've been charged with perverting the course of justice.
"If they do [speak up] then there are people going to jail for attempted murder."
His sentiments about the silence are echoed by Dr Jarrod Gilbert, the author of Patched: The History of Gangs in New Zealand, who agreed to talk generally about the issue rather than the specifics in this case.
Gilbert says no informing or "no narking" is one of the most significant rules that must be adhered to in the criminal underworld and gang scene.
"If that rule is broken, then the consequences can be severe. That may mean violence but it also means a shunning from individuals in those circles."
The rule creates real problems for law enforcement because it makes prosecutions and convictions incredibly difficult to achieve, he says.
"That's the reason for the rule, because it keeps people in the underworld secure and that's why they enforce it on others around them.
"If that rule breaks down, it's a threat to everybody in gangs and the underworld."
Gilbert says MCs have enjoyed a growth in membership since 2010 and while the returning 501 deportees have had an influence it was difficult to pinpoint the exact reason.
The membership of clubs had dwindled in the late 1990s and some had even fallen over in that time.
"Young people were being attracted back into the scene and that hadn't happened in a very long time."
Angus turned down requests to have restorative justice conferences with those charged, saying he doesn't know the full extent of what they know given they haven't spoken up.
"I don't think it's right when I don't remember who did what."
"Those offenders can get lighter sentences because they've shown remorse, but they haven't shown any remorse because they haven't given up who actually did this."
Aiden Corlett, Jake McDonald and Ian Hawkes were sentenced in the Palmerston North District Court yesterday, for perverting the course of justice in relation to the attack. They were each given six months' community detention, 12 months' supervision and ordered to pay emotional harm reparation of $3400 to Angus.
Lee-Anne Duxfield was sentenced to six months' community detention, for perverting the course of justice earlier this month.
Police acting district commander Inspector Ross Grantham refused to comment about whether new information about who carried out the attack was being sought, how frustrating it was for police when witnesses would not come forward, or how common it was for gangs to use intimidation to prevent people from giving evidence.
However, a former high-ranking police officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says gangs regularly used threats, intimidation, violence and had even killed to prevent witnesses from testifying.
They believed the public had a right to know what was going on in their community and by keeping quiet, the faith people had in police could potentially be in danger.
"They should be letting the public know what is actually happening out there with gang offending and tensions. They deserve to be kept informed. Otherwise, they are running the risk of losing the public's confidence and trust.
"I think that that's giving a false sense of security really."
Whanganui mayor Hamish McDouall didn't believe there wasn't a climate of fear or intimidation in the general community, saying it was confined to those involved or associated with gangs.
"In the perceptions of community safety survey, the district council does every year you will see most people find Whanganui a safe city."
McDouall says gangs are less visible than they were 10 to 15 years ago, but wasn't trying to minimise the harm they caused.
"They're involved in drug dealing but also crimes of violence and property issues.
"There's a gang presence here but it's no different to Palmerston North or New Plymouth.
"There will always be an attraction to something that gives a sense of worth to those who are marginalised."
The Hell Angels is a 1 per cent outlaw motorcycle club that was formed in California in March 1948 and is now the largest MC in the world with 467 charters in 59 countries, including seven in New Zealand, and an estimated 3600 members.
The Whanganui chapter was formed in 1991 and the gang has a formal structure with an elected president, vice-president and sergeant-at-arms.
Membership to the gang with its "Death's Head" insignia is strictly controlled and there is no retiring from it - members are kicked out, which can include tattoos being burnt off.
While Angus' recovery has been slow and difficult at times he remains positive of regaining his independence by getting his driver's licence back and moving away from Whanganui.
"When I first came home, I used to have little naps every day. Now I'm training four days a week.
"My goal is to get back to work, I don't want to be laying on a bed every day. I want to get in my car and become independent again. I just can't wait to get on with my life really."
