Fugitive Junior Taupati should be finishing the first of at least three years behind bars for his part in a bloody knife and bat fight that left three people with lifelong scars.
Instead, he’s spent 11 months on the ran – living like a ghost – after vanishing from the County Court of Victoria as a jury was deciding his fate in April last year.
Fairfax Media can reveal detectives believe the 35-year-old New Zealand national is still in Victoria, relying on assistance from members of the community and using fake identities.
He has been known to use several aliases, including Taupati Taupati and Taupati Tuimalatu, and has associates in the Point Cook, Sanctuary Lakes, Hillside, Deer Park areas. When he fled the law he left behind a partner and an infant son.
“There’s a network of people in the community who would be able to assist him if they wanted to,” said Wyndham CIU acting Detective Sergeant Trevor Renden, who arrested Taupati in 2012.
“He’d have access to all sorts of things: phones, places to stay and different names.”
Junior Taupati has been on the run for almost a year. Photo: Supplied
After a jury convicted him in absentia of recklessly causing serious injury and affray, he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years, with a minimum of three behind bars on April 29, 2014.
“I’m never going to stop looking for him,” said Detective Renden, adding that Taupati faced further charges for fleeing while on bail.
A disagreement between extended family groups had turned into a bloody brawl involving 11 people, some brandishing knives and bats, at a Point Cook home on October 2, 2012.
Taupati had armed himself with a baseball bat and chased off a man whose outnumbered friend was then surrounded and stabbed repeatedly, court records show. Eight others were charged but Taupati was one of only three to receive a jail term.
His history includes assaulting or obstructing police, wilful damage and possession of dangerous drugs.
Taupati previously “went totally off the grid” after the brawl and was discovered a month later living in a Tullamarine factory with four co-accused men, Detective Renden said.
“He’d sent his children on an airplane back to New Zealand to his family,” Detective Renden said. “He’s just afraid, he’s afraid of going to jail.”
Anabela Uluakiahoia, 35, sees the scars from that night – the result of being stabbed to the temple and chest – every morning that she looks in the mirror. She also sees them on her husband, Soape, who was stabbed to the neck and head.
Ms Uluakiahoi lives in fear of running into Taupati on the street.
“I’m scared that I’m with my kids out shopping and he sees us and then who knows what he’ll do,” she said.
“It’s not only the physical scars, he scarred us deeper than that.”
Fairfax Media is not suggesting Taupati has stabbed anyone.
This story first appeared in The Age
Help the police
Anybody with information on Taupati’s whereabouts is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
