How a right wing racket unleashed on me.
As vigilantes and racketeers sat in the front rows of a packed Warkworth Town Hall,
Chris Luxon said:
"We will give the police special powers to break up planned criminal activity
and deal with intimidating behaviour.”
Source: Mahurangi Matters.
When RNZ’s Ruth Hill contacted me about my September 2020 astroturfing article, a year later I would be facing prison time.
My article was an excerpt from a book that I was writing. Days after Ruth’s April 2021 RNZ article, the trouble started. Former Act deputy leader Beth Houlbrooke and her son, Taxpayers’ Union campaign manager Louis Houlbrooke, got pretty worked up. Louis described it as “Tantalising journalism.” Chris Penk MP called it a “Weird and ridiculous item.” Days later, someone lodged a baseless complaint with the Law Society, which was ignored.
Beth Houlbrooke and her boyfriend then tried to provoke fights with me at a bar. Following a second attempt, the bar manager told them off. “The police will believe me! I’m Beth Houlbrooke!” she proclaimed, which made many laugh.
I applied for a restraining order. Days later, the Law Society was pressured again by the same person. Instead of defending her actions, Beth Houlbrooke sent the local police a malicious dossier about me prepared by Act’s Campaign Manager, Stu Wilson.
The police have gone to extraordinary lengths to obstruct the release of the contents of this email.
According to information eventually released by Auckland Council, Beth Houlbrooke had engaged on a campaign to stigmatise me. Describing me as a bully, liar, and hacker, it provided the council an excuse to stall, withhold, and redact information. A council relationship manager then tried to gaslight me.
Local police stigmatised me in their National Intelligence Application database. Internal police emails revealed bias in the way that they handled information requests and complaints. The day after one complaint was fobbed off, Beth Houlbrooke, Mark Mitchell, and Chris Penk hugged local police and then refilled their glasses at an event held by the local racket to honour police. According to the Police, who are meant to be apolitical and independent, it was the only event of its type ever held.
The local chamber of commerce ran a piss-up for the local police.
There would be three further attempts by vigilantes to stitch me up, targeting me on my daily walk during the Covid lockdowns. During the first attempt, Houlbrooke’s associates unleashed my dog tied to a fence, resulting in a council fine (which was waived). The day after I published a second excerpt from my book exposing the racket, another vigilante (who was the mother of a cop) unleashed my dog tied to the same fence. When I noticed her and tried to take a photo of her, the vigilante attacked me with her camera, threw it at me, and then fled the scene. Another vigilante tried to convince onlookers that I had attacked the vigilante twice. Police stitched together statements, falsified evidence, and I was charged with assault and robbery.
Days later, when my lawyer asked me to take scene photos, I was followed by nine vigilantes. I photographed all three incidents, which I withheld until my trial.
Local police then stalled the release of evidence which contradicted the police statements, including the vigilante’s 111 call where another vigilante (who coordinated volunteers at the police station) could be heard in the background coaching her. Despite this, the police had the audacity to upgrade one charge to where the starting point for sentencing was imprisonment, and then try to use it as leverage in a plea bargain.
During the February 2024 trial, the vigilante claimed that she was part of a plot to send photos of dogs off leash to a community paper. She had already sent a submission to the council stating that dogs should be destroyed for breaching council rules. A council dog ranger led the vigilante to believe that, if my dog was caught off leash three times, there would be dire consequences.
I was offered mistrials twice due to vigilantes trying to pervert the course of justice. The vigilante passed a note to the prosecutor while still under cross-examination. Another vigilante then whispered answers to her. I wanted a verdict, the trial continued, and the judge recorded minutes so the vigilantes’ offending could be addressed later.
I was acquitted. My physical evidence unravelled the vigilantes’ plot. Despite my lawyer asking that local police not be involved with the complaints against the vigilantes, they still interfered.
There were nine stitch up attempts designed to silence me. Throughout 2021, National Party Courts Spokesman Chris Penk informed locals that there was at least a two year wait for criminal jury trials. This was like a red rag to a bull for vigilantes sitting in the front rows of his rallies.
While I was on bail, the vigilantes escalated their agenda. Beth Houlbrooke also got a job at Auckland Transport. Louis Houlbrooke became a senior press secretary for Act. Stu Wilson became David Seymour’s senior advisor. Mark Mitchell became Police Minister. Chris Penk became Minister of Building and Construction.
Beth Houlbrooke with vigilante June Turner and members of the Rodney racket
at Houlbrooke's ratepayer-funded election campaign launch.
So, what is my book about? It is about the sex scandals, rackets, and vigilante networks that led to Rodney being the most corrupted community in New Zealand. Starting with the country’s largest corruption trial involving Rodney District Council and Auckland Transport, I explore the culture that continues unleashed throughout Auckland Council, the Police, and the government.
My book was originally 350 pages. Thanks to the vigilantes not covering their tracks, it is now 786 pages. I am selling the book exclusively online as the local booksellers have been accosted by the local racket before. I don’t want what happened to me happening to them.
Unleashed: Sex, rackets & vigilantes in New Zealand’s most corrupted community.
by Grant McLachlan.
Published by Klaut Media.
ISBN: 978-0473720629, 9780473717742
Available on Google (ebook) and Amazon (paperback and Kindle ebook).
