A man bashed to death in Wanganui last year was "wearing the wrong clothing at the wrong place at the wrong time", the High Court in Wanganui was told yesterday.
Paul Shane Kumeroa, 28, was allegedly punched and hit over the head with an axe or baseball bat by a Black Power gang member and three gang associates as he walked home from a party in September last year while wearing a red hoodie.
Red was a colour associated with the rival Mongrel Mob gang but Mr Kumeroa was not a gang member or associate, the court was told.
Black Power member Clarke McCallum, 35, Daniel Rippon, 23, Jamie Ahsin, 24, and Raeleen Rameka, 20, were on a "mission to intimidate" anyone connected to the Mongrel Mob, Crown prosecutor Harry Mallalieu told the court at the opening of the group's trial yesterday.
McCallum and Rameka had an altercation with a Mongrel Mob member at a supermarket earlier on the day they allegedly attacked Mr Kumeroa, and the group confronted a man at Rameka's house who they believed was linked to the Mongrel Mob, The Dominion Post reported.
"They were now clearly on a mission to threaten and intimidate anyone who they believed had any semblance of association to the Mongrel Mob," Mr Mallalieu said yesterday.
The group came across Mr Kumeroa as he was walking home in Castlecliff and attacked him, Mr Mallalieu told the court.
Mr Kumeroa died in hospital the next day.
NZPA