{"id":532237,"date":"2026-07-18T12:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T12:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/532237\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T12:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T12:14:10","slug":"hawkes-bay-slaver-trafficker-denied-parole-after-threatening-fellow-prisoner-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/532237\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawke\u2019s Bay slaver, trafficker denied parole after threatening fellow prisoner"},"content":{"rendered":"

After being repeatedly refused last year, Matamata was granted parole last month and was to be released on July 6<\/a>, but the Parole Board revoked its decision after he made threatening remarks to another prisoner.<\/p>\n

He reappeared before the Parole Board on Friday, when chairwoman Jan Doogue asked him to explain himself.<\/p>\n

Speaking Samoan via an interpreter, Matamata said his lack of understanding of English meant he didn\u2019t realise what he was saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what is meant by what it is I said,\u201d he claimed. \u201cThey swear at me and I repeated it back at them. He said he was going to \u2018fk me up\u2019, that\u2019s what I repeated to him. I replied, \u2018I\u2019m going to fk you up\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in English and I was throwing back \u2018con slang\u2019. That is prison talk, I spoke like I would to a prisoner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never meant it to be threatening, it\u2019s as if I was joking. I thought that was the vibe I was getting off that person as well, it wasn\u2019t my intention to threaten or scare anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board chairwoman unconvinced by argument<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have been charged and found guilty of threatening to assault another prisoner,\u201d she said. \u201cThe answers you have given are to the effect that you\u2019re entirely innocent and didn\u2019t know what was going on, have I got that right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Matamata maintained that he did not understand what he was saying.<\/p>\n

Doogue then questioned why Matamata had engaged in the argument in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou told the board last time you appeared that, if you got in a confrontational situation, you would \u2018walk away\u2019,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Matamata was living at a self-care house at Auckland South Correctional Facility in Wiri and said the argument started over the residents\u2019 supermarket shopping.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason behind it all was there was a discussion about groceries or things that were missing from our shopping, and my approach was to talk to him,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was no intention to threaten him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason for our disagreement was over shopping. It wasn\u2019t heavy \u2013 at least, I didn\u2019t think it was heavy. I could\u2019ve gone to my room, but I didn\u2019t go to my room, because I wanted to talk to the brother and address this issue with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parole Board member Campbell Roberts asked Matamata how he would change his attitude if he were to be released.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was released, I will not do as I have done before,\u201d he said. \u201cI will not use the power I had before, because it has affected people, and it has also affected me and my family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will focus on no other circle than my direct family. We will go to church, read the Bible and be closer to God.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a brief deliberation, the board declined Matamata\u2019s parole. He can try again in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After being repeatedly refused last year, Matamata was granted parole last month and was to be released on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,1561,15159,37774,29052,1976,111,43,139,69,47839,20937,262645,12419,121954,37775],"class_list":["post-532237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-bay","tag-denied","tag-felix","tag-fellow","tag-hawkes","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-parole","tag-prisoner","tag-slaver","tag-threatening","tag-trafficker","tag-walton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532237","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=532237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}