Meet a Third Striker – Ngatama Kaienua
Ngatama James Kaienua is a Third Striker.
He is New Zealand’s 10th person to be sentenced as a Third Strike offender since Three Strikes came into force in June 2010.
At the age of 28, Kaienua has almost 20 criminal convictions as an adult, and an unknown number of convictions as a Youth.
He has today been sentenced to 14 years imprisonment (with no minimum non-parole period) for his part in the violent robbery of a suburban Auckland dairy, in which a hardworking, completely innocent family were tending to their business. Kaienua stood nearby as lookout while the mother and son of the family were attacked by Kaienua’s teenage accomplice with a large knife, suffering multiple stab wounds. Kaienua unsuccessfully tried to convince the trial Judge that he had no idea his accomplice was carrying a knife. He was arguably the mastermind behind the whole plan and used his teenage accomplice to do his dirty work.
His first strike was committed aged 20, when Kaienua had sex with a 13 year old girl, in the process passing on to her a sexually transmitted infection, and was convicted of unlawful sexual connection with a young person. He was sentenced to 2 years and 1 month imprisonment for that offending.
He was released from prison, early, on parole for his first strike offence. While on parole he, and two accomplices robbed a suburban Rotorua dairy armed with a weapon in the form of a solid wooden kitchen table leg. He repeatedly bashed the shop keeper over the head with the wooden leg. For that offending Kaienua was sentenced to 3 years, 9 months imprisonment and received his second strike.
Kaienua is also a convicted burglar.
Kaienua has an unwillingness or inability to control himself, seeks to take what he wants from vulnerable people – whether teenage girls, suburban dairy owners or home owners via burglaries.
Kaienua is a public menace, and a clear and present danger to the public. He has been assessed by Corrections as a high risk of reoffending and a high risk of causing harm to others. He has not been deterred by the repeated ‘strike’ warnings he has received. He shows little to no prospect of changing his ways until he “ages out” of criminal offending, as most young offenders do when they finally grow up and gain some respect for others. Three strikes now kicks in to incapacitate him from reoffending against the public by imprisoning him for an extended period – up to 14 years.
Without three strikes he would have got a sentence of just over six years with parole eligibility after just two years.
I’m surprise the Judge didn’t impose a minimum non-parole period, considering his history of offending on parole.
He thoroughly deserves to be in jail for an extended period, and the New Zealand public thoroughly deserves protection from him. That’s what prison – via Three Strikes – achieves.
The only question now is whether the Parole Board will get it wrong like they did previously, releasing him early from his first strike sentence, and release him early from the 14 years handed down by the Judge.