A prisoner accused of raping three of his cellmates has been found guilty on all 14 charges.
William Katipa was found guilty of 14 charges, including sexual violation and threatening to kill. Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson
William Katipa stood quietly as the jurors delivered their guilty verdicts on the charges, including sexual violation and threatening to kill.
The rapes happened inside Katipa's cell during lockdown.
The Crown said Katipa used violence and threats of violence to force his cellmates into having sex.
He made sure the victims knew of his gang connection and that he was a "lifer", meaning he had nothing to lose.
Katipa will be sentenced in November, where the Crown will seek a sentence of preventive detention.
The first rape happened more than 10 years ago as Katipa served a sentence of preventive detention, a term comparable to life.
In his opening address, Crown prosecutor Ned Fletcher said it started with a fight in a cell after lockdown but Katipa then raped the man while they were locked inside.
"The defendant had told him that what had happened would happen again the following night and he couldn't handle that thought. He tried writing a rescue note on an envelope to slip under the cell door but when he tried to get off his bunk to do that, the defendant woke and told him to get back in bed."
The man had to wait until they were let out in the yard the following day to alert a prison guard.
Mr Fletcher said the guard put the prisoner in a holding cell while he supervised yard time. When he went to the cell a short time later, he found the prisoner with his head between his knees.
Mr Fletcher said the man told the guard: "You've got to get me out of here, mister."
"He then started sobbing uncontrollably, like a baby, for a good 10 to 15 minutes."
The man spoke to a police officer and despite Katipa's DNA being found on the man's boxer shorts, the police investigation was closed.
It was reopened years later when two other complainants came forward.
One teenager double bunked with Katipa inside the Serco-run prison at Wiri. Katipa, then 49, played the guitar and taught Te Reo and kapa haka. When the teenager moved in, he said he was repeatedly raped every night for a week.
When he was finally able to change cells, he said Katipa threatened him with a knife.
Another prisoner - who was in his 20s at the time - spent just one night with Katipa and was also raped.
He waited until Katipa was out of his wing before telling police what had happened.
The man was also threatened and Mr Fletcher explained how that threat was received.
"A lot of people will bow down to people that are lifers because ... for the reason that they can literally kill you and it won't do anything to their lag. What's an extra 10 to 15 years when they're already doing life?"
Mr Fletcher told the jurors that if they believed the men, then there was only one verdict they could return.
"Irrespective of why these young men were in prison and what you think of them, it's your responsibility to return guilty verdicts, because otherwise, the pernicious notion that prison rape is an inevitable part of prison life behind bars will continue."
Defence lawyer Andrew Speed told the jurors the allegations were untrue.
"They are motivated by self-interest, delivered by complainants for whom dishonesty is a way of life."
During the trial it emerged that one of the prisoners has brought a civil claim against the Department of Corrections for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Mr Speed also cross-examined the three complainants on their lengthy criminal histories.
But in the end, the jurors returned unanimous guilty verdicts after deliberating for more than 12 hours over three days.
