{"id":625187,"date":"2026-10-09T08:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T08:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/625187\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T08:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T08:42:11","slug":"kiri-robb-and-mark-puata-sentenced-for-kidnapping-harley-shrimpton-who-was-later-murdered-in-an-unrelated-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/625187\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiri Robb and Mark Puata sentenced for kidnapping Harley Shrimpton, who was later murdered in an unrelated incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week they were sentenced in the Tauranga District Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On October 6, 2023, Robb and Puata turned up at a flat in P\u0101p\u0101moa to collect the money from Shrimpton and the woman, who can\u2019t be named for legal reasons.<\/p>\n

Shrimpton was told to get in the car; the woman had already been sent a text message from Robb, warning her to \u201cget in the car and don\u2019t speak unless spoken to, this is serious\u201d.<\/p>\n

They were driven around P\u0101p\u0101moa Beach, as Puata yelled and threatened the victims, \u201cdemanding repayment of the money\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jury clearly found that both of those victims were held against their will and it\u2019s clear to my mind that they remained in the car for fear of violence,\u201d Judge Bill Lawson said.<\/p>\n

The judge said it was clear from the context, and the text messages sent over a two-day period, that there was direct intimidation and an intent to intimidate over the recovery of the money.<\/p>\n

Robb and Puata also took the woman\u2019s dog and told the woman he would \u201cnot come back until your bill is cleared\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another message said, \u201cSee you soon, and beware, Moon is f***ing angry\u201d. <\/p>\n

After being at P\u0101p\u0101moa Beach, the victims were driven to a Z petrol station, and while Robb got out of the car, Puata stayed in the car and punched Shrimpton in the head.<\/p>\n

Puata was found guilty of assaulting Shrimpton, which the judge noted meant the kidnapping had involved actual violence.<\/p>\n

Shrimpton and the woman were taken home, but Puata and Robb took the woman\u2019s dog as \u201csecurity\u201d.<\/p>\n

The next day, Robb and Puata returned to the victims\u2019 flat and walked in without permission.<\/p>\n

The judge noted that although a flatmate opened the door, the pair had \u201csimply entered without a request to enter\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, the text messages speak to your intent when you entered that address,\u201d the judge said, noting Robb had told the victims Puata was \u201cangry\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Robb and Puata were there, the woman called her father to get the money paid.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was clearly terrified,\u201d said Judge Lawson.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs, I expect, was the male victim. He was then assaulted again … and was told that was because he made the female victim ask her father for money.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a further assault on Shrimpton by Puata, and then Puata drove the woman to another address to arrange for payment of the money.<\/p>\n

Shrimpton\u2019s problems got worse after this incident, because Robb was not the only person to whom he owed money.<\/p>\n

In a separate, unrelated trial, Piripi Tukaokao was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering Shrimpton<\/a> over a drug debt, about a month after the incident with Puata and Robb.<\/p>\n

\"HarleyHarley Shrimpton and a woman were kidnapped by Kiri Robb and Mark Puata about a month before he was killed in an unrelated incident over another debt. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n

\u201cChanged the way I see the world\u201d says woman<\/p>\n

In a victim impact statement, the woman said it was \u201cdifficult to put into words how frightening that time was and how much it has changed [her]\u201d.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d moved away from Tauranga because she no longer felt safe there, and now felt scared of the dark and \u201cbeing outside after dark\u201d.<\/p>\n

She was constantly aware of her surroundings now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has changed the way I see the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel as carefree as I did before.\u201d<\/p>\n

She still grapples with fear, panic and anxiety, and is working to rebuild her confidence, but said it had not been easy.<\/p>\n

When it came to sentencing, the judge accepted that the period of detention had been \u201crelatively brief\u201d, had not involved weapons or restraints, but was \u201cclearly premeditated\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Robb hadn\u2019t been involved in the violence, she was the \u201cinstigator\u201d of the overall offending.<\/p>\n

In terms of the defendants\u2019 backgrounds and personal circumstances, Puata had 10 pages of previous convictions, including eight burglary convictions.<\/p>\n

There were also convictions for unlawful possession of firearms, possession of a knife, threatening to kill, assault with a firearm, assault with a weapon, male assaults female, and multiple common assaults. <\/p>\n

The 68-year-old had a long-standing association with the Mongrel Mob, having joined the gang when he was 20. <\/p>\n

He had issues with methamphetamine use, had been using heavily at the time of the offending, and now has significant health challenges.<\/p>\n

Robb had previous convictions for possession of a firearm without a licence, and assault.<\/p>\n

She had given the court a letter of remorse, but the judge noted it was somewhat at odds with comments made to a pre-sentence report-writer, where she claimed the victims had gone with her willingly.<\/p>\n

The judge adopted an overall starting point of three years\u2019 and four months\u2019 imprisonment for Puata, and two years\u2019 and five months\u2019 imprisonment for Robb.<\/p>\n

Puata was given a 15% discount for his ill-health and addiction issues, leading to an end sentence of two years and 10 months in prison.<\/p>\n

Robb was given a 5% discount for remorse, and received an end sentence of two years and three months\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n

Join the NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week they were sentenced in the Tauranga District Court. On October 6, 2023, Robb and Puata turned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8831,95,2082,232196,78,671,20925,115914,9933,32573,43768,111,43,139,69,307199,307198,5161,108628,88248,6736,1299],"class_list":["post-625187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-an","tag-and","tag-for","tag-harley","tag-in","tag-incident","tag-kidnapping","tag-kiri","tag-later","tag-mark","tag-murdered","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-puata","tag-robb","tag-sentenced","tag-shrimpton","tag-unrelated","tag-was","tag-who"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625187","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=625187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}