A New Zealand High Court has sentenced a 26-year-old man, Luigi Havea (of Tongan descent) to 10 years and 3 months imprisonment for kidnapping and manslaughter in relation to death of a 50-year-old woman in Auckland last year.

Luigi Havea was one of 11 people found guilty in relation to the kidnapping of Thai national Jindarat Prutsiriporn. According to local reports, the kidnapping was drug related as Ms Prutsiriporn had strong connections to New Zealand’s criminal underworld.

The kidnapping occurred on 1 March 2016, when Ms Prutsiriporn was tied up and bundled into the boot of a car outside her home. She attempted to escape from the boot as the car was driving and fell onto a road in South Auckland, she later died from her injuries.

The Judge in the case, Justice Palmer of the Auckland High Court, stated in his ruling "The boot came open and Ms Prutsiriporn, still bound, came out of it. Her head hit the road with a crunch, fracturing her skull. The chef's steel was by her hand."

"We do not know if she was subjected to violence but she must have been in dire fear of her life."

A second man of Tongan descent, Panepasa Havea, was also found guilty of Kidnapping and was sentenced in June this year. He was sentenced to 3 years and 8 months

According to the court ruling, a number of the accused including Luigi and Panepasa, were associates of a biker gang called the “Head Hunters”. The Court ruled that they had been hired by a Cambodian national, Seng Lek Liev. Seng Lek Liev was a close friend of Jindarat and is believed to have orchestrated the kidnapping.

Justice Palmer stated, “This horrific case shows us exactly what the Head Hunters motorcycle gang stand for and the damage they are doing to our communities.”

"We know they are distributing large amounts or large [quantities] of drugs through our communities and the ripple effect that this has is dangerous and sometimes deadly."

He sentenced Liev, Sodarith Sao (nine years and eight months), Apichart Korhomklang (10 years and eight months), Luigi Havea (10 years and 3 months), Tafito Vaifale (7 years and 10 months), Joseph Haurua (6½ years), Panepasa Havea (3 years and 8 months), and Raymond Brown (25 months),

Justice Palmer said in the ruling that it was unacceptable that some of the accused had down-played their roles in the kidnapping.

"…other New Zealanders will see this as drug dealers contracting with a gang to kidnap a small middle-aged woman under threat to her and her family and keeping her in conditions that caused her such fear that she attempted to escape, bound, from the boot of a moving car. This is completely unacceptable."