Girlfriend helped prisoners out of jail on compassionate bail by ...

Louise Witteveen was sentenced to six months' community detention and 12 months' supervision. Photo / NZME

A woman who helped her then-imprisoned partner forge multiple documents involving faking his father’s death so he could get a brief taste of freedom says he was abusive toward her.

Louise Witteveen and her former partner Adam Paul Martin faked tears and exchanged multiple phone calls before the court granted his compassionate bail release from Spring Hill Prison last year.

Following the success, Martin’s cellmate Teina Rongonui got in on the act and asked Witteveen to arrange documents faking his mother’s death so he could also be released.

He was granted release but didn’t return to jail and was arrested later.

Court documents state Martin called Witteveen, of Bucklands Beach in Auckland, to say “we are sending the lawyer thing tonight and say it’s urgent”.

The next day, he again called her and she told him that she had texted his lawyer to say that his father, Paul Martin, had died of a heart attack in the early hours of the morning.

During that phone call, Martin was heard trying to memorise the date and time of his father’s death before telling her to ring his lawyer, that it was an emergency and urgent.

They also discussed when the “funeral” would be and what she would say to his lawyer, emphasising to her that there “was no room for error”.

To fulfill the fake compassionate bail application, they were told they’d get “Nikki” to accompany her to a JP to get an affidavit signed and that the lawyer would need to speak to a family member about the tangi, to which Martin said, “make that be Nikki” who they would later decide to be an “aunty”.

Witteveen said she was pretending to cry on the phone when she was speaking to Martin’s lawyer. Martin confirmed he did the same.

They also came up with another name for his aunty, with Witteveen suggesting “Rose”.

“Rosie?” Martin replied, “Rosie is all right,” Witteveen said.

They then discussed what the fake aunt would say to the lawyer and Martin replied, “she’s just going to say... that her name is Rose Martin and that she needs to say that Paul Martin died”.

However, tensions peaked and the pair argued before Martin said to her, “We need something believable, babe”.

Witteveen went on to use her work email address to send her forged tangi and death notice of “Paul Martin” to another email address she had created.

It was granted a couple of days later in the Hamilton District Court.

The following month, Martin again called Witteveen from prison asking that she create death certificates and other supporting documents for two other prisoners.

Teina Rongonui spoke to his father and said he was applying for compassionate bail and told him he had to confirm everything with his lawyer, including that the funeral would take place at Pukaki Marae, Auckland.

Witteveen went through the same process and Rongonui’s bail was again granted and he was due to return at 6pm on March 5.

He never turned up but was later arrested.

In April, Martin and Witteveen had yet another discussion about compassionate bail, this time by using the excuse of an “unveiling”.

They also discussed being paid $400 for helping Rongonui, but argued over who got how much.

“You get $100 and I get $300,” Witteveen eventually told him.

The application was advanced and granted on April 7 but it was later refused as the venue where the tangi was being held had been closed for the last two years.

Their litany of lies was then unravelled, as the Department of Internal Affairs confirmed the death certificates were fake.

The trio was arrested and first appeared in court in June last year.

Martin was sentenced to four months’ home detention, while Witteveen appeared in the Hamilton District Court on Friday for her sentencing.

Her lawyer, Russell Boot, said an affidavit outlining his client’s position was before the court, including a document from a women’s refuge organisation from Auckland.

She fully accepted responsibility for what she’d done but she was keen to move on. She now had a new house and “significant goals”.

“One of her primary ones would be to be the best mother to her child,” he said.

Martin held a “power imbalance” over Witteveen and he hoped Judge Brett Crowley could step back from a restrictive home detention sentence.

However, Crown prosecutor Bolivia Newton said home detention was a necessary sentence for the purposes of deterrence, given the offending was “highly pre-meditated” and persistent.

“As opposed to a momentary lapse of judgment as a result of coercion.”

Judge Crowley noted Martin’s extensive criminal history which stretched “at least 18 pages”.

“You have none,” Judge Crowley said to Witteveen.

“He [Martin] has form for doing this sort of thing and acting dishonestly and getting away from lawful custody.

“You say the relationship was abusive and I have no difficulty in accepting that. He has a large number of convictions of being violent to his domestic partners.

“I don’t see that he would have stopped that when your relationship started.”

Judge Crowley said as Martin was sentenced to four months’ home detention, it would not be just to sentence Witteveen to the same kind of sentence.

“It seems the judge adopted a merciful and lenient approach... but [he] is a far more experienced judge than I.”

He had read Witteveen’s affidavit - which wasn’t read in open court - prior to sentencing today, but did say the contents were “consistent with the known behaviour of Mr Martin”.

He sentenced her to the maximum community detention sentence of six months together with 12 months’ intensive supervision.