"Rather than acting with honesty, courage, and integrity, you drove him to the hospital while stopping to plan your escape and create lies."
Those were the words of the partner of the late Zain Taikato Fox, who died in what is alleged to have been an internal gang confrontation.
As the 20-year-old lay dying in the back of a car, his mates stopped to decide what they would tell the police: that he'd been hit by a car.
Damien Richard Beale, Brendon Major Nicholson and a third man who has name suppression all admitted that after they took Fox to Rotorua Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, they made false statements to police.
Now, Beale and Nicholson have been sentenced in the Tauranga District Court; the third man was sentenced for his role, and other charges, in another court earlier this year.
In her victim impact statement, Fox's partner told Beale and Nicholson that Fox had trusted them.
"He believed you would stand beside him ... just as he would have done for each of you. Instead, you turned your backs on him, watching him suffer as his life slipped away."
She said when he needed help most, the men "chose silence" and "showed cowardice instead of loyalty".
She couldn't "imagine the betrayal and fear he must have felt ... " and said their actions were "weak, selfish, and shameful".
"The betrayal and disloyalty you showed reveal the true depths of your character, and those choices will follow you for the rest of your life."
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