WHEN police and paramedics arrived at a unit in Hamilton South in the early hours of March 8, 2019, they found one man bleeding profusely from a stab wound and another naked, semi-conscious with a compound fracture of the skull under a roll of carpet. It was a chaotic and perplexing scene that had started with a car chase and a foot pursuit at Hamilton, evolved into a brutal and brazen abduction, during which the victim Killian Reynolds desperately climbed onto the roof of a passing car in a bid to get help before being bashed and dragged away, and ended with one of the kidnappers, 51-year-old Valentino Taufaao, known as "Malou", being stabbed to death.
Timothy Onslow, who drove the car involved in the chase and then pursued Mr Reynolds on foot before repeatedly assaulting him, was on Monday jailed for a maximum of nine-and-a-half years for his role in the terrifying abduction.
Judge Roy Ellis ordered Onslow, now 27, serve at least five years behind bars before he is eligible for parole in March, 2024.
While Onslow, Mr Taufaao and another man, Brendon William Cook, played more significant roles in the abduction and brutal assault, Mercer admitted that while a naked and bleeding Mr Reynolds was sat in a chair in his unit, he stood over him with a machete and said words to the effect of: "Don't even think about f---ing going anywhere, don't f---ing move."
Mercer, who was arrested 14 months after the others, had pleaded guilty to reckless grievous bodily harm in company and will be eligible for parole next year. The abduction was initially thought to have been motivated by a massive compensation payout that was awarded to Mr Reynolds after a workplace accident.
But Onslow gave evidence on Monday that, as far as he knew, the group who had targeted Mr Reynolds and chased him down were not motivated by money but jealousy.
Mr Reynolds was initially charged with manslaughter over Mr Taufaao's death, but the DPP dropped the charge. No one is charged over his death.
