Prisoners caught on CCTV beating each other to a pulp inside notorious New Zealand jail as part of brutal organised bouts
DOZENS of men stand around and watch as a pair of inmates throw wild punches, kicks, knees and elbows at each other.
When one man goes down, another steps in immediately and the winner takes on his next challenger.
The fights happen once a week at the notorious Mt Eden prison on New Zealand’s North Island. At least, they used to.
They were shut down last year showing gang members engaging in violent brawls.
An official inquiry, released this week, reveals the extent to which management knew the fighting occurred and how fights were organised and operated.
It doesn’t reflect well on Serco, the company which lost the contract to operate the 1000-man remand centre last year.
The fights involved gang members and were conducted while guards were not watching. But several of the fights took place in areas covered by CCTV.
Each fight involved “multiple rounds”, according to one report, and those taking part didn’t always have a choice.
One prisoner, who spent two months inside Mt Eden, told a tribunal a knife was held to him and he was forced to fight on a weekly basis.
He said he was taken into a room with five to 10 people and forced to fight a prisoner bigger than him.
New Zealand’s NewsHub reported prisoners suffered serious injuries including broken limbs and brain damage.
The Department of Corrections took over the running of the prison in July last year.
Corrections chief executive Ray Smith said Serco’s failures were “on quite a large scale”, Radio NZ reported.
An official inquiry found the prison was understaffed and guards were not properly trained to detect or prevent organised fights.
Kevin Mussard found himself locked up in Mt Eden in May, 2015.
It wouldn’t be long before the French citizen was moved into intensive care with a fractured skull, a brain bleed and 22 stitches.
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Mussard was serving a six-month sentence for a violent assault against a woman, . While behind bars at the Auckland-based centre, he was beaten over the head with a stick.
The Frenchman is taking legal action against Serco over the attack, which he said was sparked by a confrontation over stolen items from his cell.
“What goes on in there is horrific, not just what happened to me but what I’ve witnessed myself,” he said.
“It’s the last place on earth you’d want to be. I wouldn’t wish what happened to me to happen to my worst enemy because that place is just torture.”
His mother says the his brain injuries will be with him for the rest of his life.
“There’s no way I’m going away (from legal action),” she said.
“I had a healthy child and now I don’t have a healthy child anymore. I’ll fight for justice for the rest of my life if I have to.”
The prisoner responsible for inflicting the wounds on Mussard was sentenced to three more years in September.
The Auckland District Court heard 22-year-old Manawanui Te Pou .
The family of a man who died shortly after being spear-tackled at Mt Eden jail has spoken of the ordeal for the first time.
Nick Evans died in June 2015, aged 25. His family on Tuesday said a report into his death is a “whitewash” and they plan to sue Corrections.
Evans’ father Glenn the 25-year-old got in a fight while in prison.
A spear-tackle led to a collapsed lung and eventually his death. He says his son’s life in prison was miserable.
“Yes, he was there to be punished, but he didn’t deserve to die. The last three months of his life must have been an absolute nightmare, and that makes it even worse for us.”
Serco was fined $50,000 in 2013 for failing to control prisoners. Management of the Auckland facility was handed over to Corrections in 2015 but Serco remains in charge of Wiri Prison in South Auckland.
The company manages a number of Immigration Detention Centres in Australia, including Christmas Island.
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