ADRIAN PRITCHARD
“I was born in Hastings, Hawkes Bay 1971 with one older brother. We were brothers but never connected. I attended local schools until at 15 I was kicked out for abusing teachers, running away and acting out my frustrations.
Jesus was never mentioned in our household, there was violence and a lot of alcohol, parties and sexual behaviour that kids should never see at any age.
I got sexually abused as a 7-year-old. That went on for 4 years so much of my pluck and anger originated from that. I never spoke about it. Back in those days you hid things like that and did not speak out. That dark shadow hung over me all through my life until just 4 years ago my counsellor identified it, opened that can of worms and we were able to work through it and deal with it.
Praise God because through Him I have been able to see the impact of what was done to me, the injustice of it, and where that bottled up anger ultimately took me. A place of such darkness I never imagined I would find myself in, and from which I would later have to fight my way out of.
I tried to commit suicide at an early age but was rescued from that. I used school time to fantasize and do all sorts of crazy things I now recognise as indications of being deeply troubled. I never knew how to look at or talk to a female. At home I was used to hearing yelling and screaming and seeing my dad beat up my mum. Much later I needed to learn this was not acceptable behaviour.
I played lock in rugby which was a good outlet for my frustrations. I played with Josh Kronfeld who lived 3 doors away from me. We would go to the park and kick the ball around.
He became an All Black and I became a criminal.
I began stealing at 14 and when I was about to turn 16, I gapped it to Sydney. I had friends there who were involved in bikie gangs, and I also had cousins who were part of that world. I thought I could join up, live in that life and do better for myself than I had in Hawkes Bay. Big move, and I was naive. I thought the world was my oyster. I was 1.78 meters (5.11 feet) tall, fit and thought I could grab hold of the world.
At 16, I was allocated as a pimp and given control of one of their 4 massage parlours in Kings Cross. I was doing a lot of stuff I shouldn’t be doing.
The following 12 months opened my eyes to a world I had never known. I had been born into a household of abuse and the effects of all that continued to mould my life and shape what was to come.
In the massage parlour there was sexual deviate behaviour, violence and drugs. I started using a lot of coke and heroin as a way of coping with the anxiety and pressures of that environment. I thought I was the man and wanted to prove myself. I made a lot of money, but it was all a blur of drugs and parties. I could see if I stayed there any longer, I was going to die. Even before I became a Christian, I believe God’s hand was upon my life.
I stole from the gang and arrived back in New Zealand with a lot of money. I just took off and never returned. You can get killed for doing that. Again, I can only say God protected me. There was so much crap in my life. How am I still here but for God?
I moved to another area where my mum lived as my dad didn’t want to know me. When my mother saw me, she was shocked at what she saw and said ‘this is not my son’.
The cops arrested me as before I left for Sydney I was wanted for arson. I got a community sentence but that did not stop me getting into the riffraff. Life was full on, and I formed a bond with a rapist and murderer who had been kicked out of Australia. He was my best mate and together we did drugs and burgled as criminal partners. Unlike the gang members, he worked undercover, and I had such respect for the way he operated, talked to girls, did crime and investigated things. I took 10 years of learning from him.
I was a busy man travelling all over the north island. Crime was an identity for me, but I had a dream of going to America and becoming a rock star or celebrity. When that dream was shattered, I decided I would make as much money as possible and retire. Although I went to Hollywood, I only lasted a week, spent a load of money and came home with my tail between my legs. I was 18 and that dream was over.
Living in Auckland brought an escalation of crime. Armed robberies, holding up banks and dairies all driven by a new dream of owning a big house on the beachfront where I could sit for the rest of my life with a wife and kids running around. I thought I would show all those people from my past that I was the man. I’m going to live like a king and when you come knocking on my door, I’m going to tell you where to go.
When you live your life by crime, you live hard, and you die hard.
I treated it as work and as my drug fuelled confidence grew so did the magnitude of the robberies. Dairies, then pharmacies, then banks. I pulled a gun out on a bank teller wanting more money.
At one point, I was dubbed New Zealand's most wanted criminal.
My first lag in jail was 18 months for driving and threatening to kill and my second was 6 years for armed robbery and kidnapping.
When I was arrested for the second time I was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. I was sent to Mount Eden prison and put in the special drug unit. It still had barbed wire all around, but the walls were a bit lower than the other 10-foot-high walls. When we went into the yard, I got a mate to give me a leg up, chucked a mattress over the barbed wire and rolled over the wall and landed close to the motorway on the other side. Although I broke my ankle in the fall, full of adrenaline, I took off and ended up with mates. Three months later I was found and sent back into a court ordered rehab area of prison. I escaped from there too, went straight into a robbery to get money and again was caught. This time I was sent to Parry (Paremoremo maximum security prison). I got an extra 2+ years for that making a total of 8+ years. Crazy!
From 18 to 30 years of age I was always on the run. Either locked up in psych units, in prison or on remand. I had to relearn my life again.
When I was sentenced the second time I was sent into a detox facility before Parry. A secure place with locked doors and bars on the windows. The Doctor there said to me ‘if you carry on this path, you won’t see another five years. You will be dead by the time you’re 25’. I thought it was just a scare tactic and kinda took it on the chin. But one year later when I was in prison, I was invited into a Bible study and because I had nothing else to do, I went.
The study leader took me aside and said ‘bro, I don’t know if this means anything, but I was given the number 5 for you”. I didn’t say anything at that time but afterwards, alone in my cell I remembered what the detox doctor had said. He gave me 5 years to live. I was anxious and couldn’t sleep. The following day I rang the Christian leader and asked him about the significance of the number 5. When I told him my story, he said it could be God telling me that if I didn’t make a decision to follow Jesus, I could be carried out of prison in a coffin before my sentence was up. I was one of those people who committed fully and was not into having a foot in both camps. This was a decision I needed to take time to think about. Prison was not the best place to become a Christian; there was a lot of stuff going on and a lot of temptations.
Six months later I made the decision. I gave my heart to the Lord”.
Part1 of 3 parts