Tame Iti is a relative and also a friend of Dean Wickliffe. Photo: RNZ / Layla Bailey-McDowell
Māori rights activist and close friend of Dean Wickliffe Tame Iti is calling for his immediate release following allegations of abuse by prison guards.
Wickliffe has been on a hunger strike since 10 March, after being taken to Spring Hill prison for breaking his parole conditions because he was living in his car and not at an approved address.
He will appear before the New Zealand Parole Board on Wednesday after his recall hearing date was moved forward from 3 April, following requests from his lawyers.
Tame Iti is one of a handful of people who has visited Wickliffe since he was taken to prison.
He told RNZ his "wairua [spirit] is still OK" and while Wickliffe was still looking "a bit a pale" the sores on his forehead looked like they were beginning to heal.
Iti said he had been visiting Wickliffe since the 1980s when he was serving a sentence for the murder of a Wellington jeweller; a charge later changed to manslaughter.
"I've seen him quite a number of times… and he's a determined fulla, always has been. But the trouble is, ko pakeke haere a ia, he's getting on a bit - he's a 77-year-old."
Dean Wickliffe Photo: Supplied
Wickliffe and Iti were whanaunga (relatives) - through their shared Ngāti Whakaue heritage - and became close friends through frequent visits over the decades, Iti said.
He remembers meeting Wickliffe for the first time shortly before he was sentenced in 1972 after being introduced by Tama Te Kapua (Tom) Poata, the founder of the Māori Organisation on Human Rights.
"We were young then and I'm about two or three years younger than him. He'd been out on the street there homeless since he was 15 [after] he got booted out by his mother.
"He got really pissed off about that and then he said 'man, I'm gonna do something I don't really want to do' so he started robbing and all of that. He would've been in his twenties then."
Iti said Wickliffe was a different man from the one locked up 50 years ago and he was still facing stigma for his long-time imprisonment and notoriety which he "can't understand".
"You're talking about something that happened maybe 50 years ago. The man is 77 years old and they still paint their picture about him.
"When you spend most of your life there in the lock-up, you know, that's some hardcore stuff that's been placed on him."
Iti said the circumstances around Wickliffe's parole and treatment in and out of prison was "bulls**t."
"Tukuna, let him go." Iti said.
Green MP Steve Abel Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Green MP Steve Abel visited Wickliffe at Spring Hill on 19 March. He told RNZ he was "gravely concerned" at the allegations of abuse and Wickliffe's overall condition.
"When I embraced him right at the end of meeting him, he had not much more than skin on his bones. At that time, he had lost a lot of weight. He was probably around the 45kg mark," Abel said.
The circumstances leading to Wickliffe's imprisonment "seemed extraordinary".
"You're doomed structurally to not live a normal life, if when you struggle to find housing, you then are liable to be arrested for a breach of bail because you're sleeping in a car."
"I don't think most New Zealanders would regard that as a fair imposition of justice, and it's certainly not how people should be treated in our society, even if they have committed a crime and been found to have broken the law, there's a point at which the punishment needs to end," Abel said.
Abel said Wickliffe has been a great advocate for prisoner rights and his hunger strike has put a spotlight on inmates' treatment.
Wickliffe was prepared to die, he said.
"I am utterly convinced that he didn't take the step of refusing to eat lightly.
"He said, 'either I walk out of here a free man or they carry me out of here in a body bag', and that is certainly not what anyone wants to see."
Abel called on the Minister of Corrections to step in to stop the "egregious and excessive treatment".
"Dean has been treated with heavy handedness and excessive force right up to the fact that right now, while he's in Waikato Hospital, he is still handcuffed to a guard 24/7 which is excessive for a man of 77 years old who is no threat to society or community, who is on a hunger strike."
In statement to RNZ, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell defended Corrections staff.
"Corrections' officers do an outstanding job, in an incredibly tough environment, managing our most dangerous violent offenders.
"Given an investigation is underway, it would be inappropriate to comment further. I would encourage Steve Abel, and his colleagues to take the same approach," Mitchell said.
Wickliffe's lawyer Sam Vincent told RNZ Wickliffe wants the footage of an alleged assault by prison guards to be made public.
In a statement, Corrections said they had received a request from Wickliffe's legal team to receive all video footage of the incident that occurred on 6 March.
"On 21 March 2025 we offered Mr Wickliffe and his legal team the opportunity to view the footage on site. This took place [on] Monday 24 March 2025.
"We are currently considering if we can release a copy of the footage to Mr Wickliffe's legal team, while ensuring we do not compromise any potential investigations or employment processes," the statement read.
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