\u201cWe are satisfied that the outcome of the recall application should not impact Mr Matamata\u2019s sentence,\u201d said the Court of Appeal judges in yesterday\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of convictions was a very minor consideration in setting the starting point and was just one of many considerations. Cull J also considered the extent of the emotional and financial harm caused to the victims, the abuse of Mr Matamata\u2019s position of trust and authority in relation to the victims, the number of victims (which remains unchanged), the vulnerability of the victims and the high level of premeditation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matamata has served his minimum term of imprisonment of five years. The parole board twice refused him parole last year and he is due to reappear before the panel in June.<\/p>\n
The 71-year-old brought people from Samoa to New Zealand to supply labour to orchards in Hawke\u2019s Bay over 25 years, from 1994 to 2019, promising them a better life.<\/p>\n
But he kept their wages, restricted their movements and communications, and used threats or violence to control them.<\/p>\n
They worked up to 14 hours a day in the fields, seven days a week, completing chores at Matamata\u2019s home late into the evening and were beaten up if they broke rules, including speaking to their families in Samoa or leaving his Hastings home without permission.<\/p>\n
The oldest victim was in his 50s and the youngest was 12. The boy described being beaten, stabbed and fed stale food.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the bamboo stick breaks, then it\u2019s the belt,\u201d he told police. \u201cWhen he gets a sore hand from the belt, from holding the belt, then that\u2019s when the stick comes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matamata denied a 2.7m-high fence around his property was to lock his slaves in. Immigration New Zealand \u201cconservatively estimated\u201d he kept more than $400,000 in wages they had earned.<\/p>\n
He used three-month holiday visas to recruit new workers, and adopted three young people in 2016.<\/p>\n
A 15-year-old girl, who thought she had come to New Zealand for schooling, told the jury she was instead made to look after Matamata\u2019s children, cook and clean. She said she ran away to Auckland but Matamata caught up with her and tied her up in his car for the journey back before putting her in a storeroom for the night.<\/p>\n
\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe are satisfied that the outcome of the recall application should not impact Mr Matamata\u2019s sentence,\u201d said the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1561,1040,45784,45783,1976,16420,53733,11517,16768,111,43,139,69,5763,121954],"class_list":["post-326011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-bay","tag-bid","tag-bonnett","tag-gill","tag-hawkes","tag-human","tag-joseph","tag-loses","tag-matamata","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sentence","tag-trafficker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}