Judge praises woman's efforts to change: "It's not going to be easy"

A woman who bottled a partygoer in the head during an unprovoked attack at a 50th birthday celebration has been praised by a judge for trying to turn her life around.

Elsie Kiri Collier, 29, was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment by Judge Turitea Bolstad in Gisborne District Court on Tuesday. However, the judge converted the sentence to 12 months home detention, noting significant progress Collier had made in addressing issues underlying her offending.

The sentence will be served at a Hicks Bay address and is to be followed by six months of conditions.

Prosecutor Amanda Briant said the Crown was concerned Collier would only be half an hour away from a place the victim regularly visited and that there was a recent report of Collier allegedly intimidating the woman. That said, there wasn’t sufficient information about it to justify stalling the sentencing.

Making his last appearance before his nine months’ suspension for a disciplinary matter begins, Collier’s lawyer Chris Tennet said the Crown’s concerns were unfounded. Collier would be on detention at a specific address so there would only be a risk of contact if the victim purposefully visited her.

Judge Bolstad said the Crown’s comment aside, she understood Collier had been focused on her children and her rehabilitative efforts since her offending.

Collier and about 15 other people were at the party at the Matakaoa RSA, Te Araroa, last July.

There had been an earlier incident in which Collier had bitten the woman so for that reason, she was keeping her distance. However, after the bar closed at midnight and everyone was sent outside, Collier approached without warning and smashed a bottle over the woman’s head then dragged her by her hair across the ground.

Ignoring other partygoers’ pleas to stop, Collier punched the victim in the head twice, eye gouged her, and stomped twice on her head.

The woman was taken to Gisborne Hospital with an open wound to her scalp, bruising to her face, and an eye injury.

Collier refused to comment at the time and initially intended to defend the charges arising — wounding with intent to injure, injuring with intent to injure, assault with intent to injure, and two counts of assault (laid under the Crimes Act).

She changed her mind and pleaded guilty after an indication from Judge Bolstad earlier this year for a sentence starting point of three years, seven months, imprisonment.

At yesterday’s hearing, the judge reduced that starting point by a total of 45 percent: 20 percent for Collier’s belated guilty pleas, 15 percent for background matters detailed in both a cultural/Section 27 report and an alcohol and other drug report. There was a further 10 percent discount for remorse.

The judge acknowledged an apology letter Collier had written to the victim but declined Mr Tennet’s request for restorative justice to be directed, saying it might set the two women back.

There was a month’s discount for Collier’s time on restrictive bail.

The judge congratulated Collier on her willingness and motivation to turn her life around.

Quoting the writer of the cultural report, the judge said Collier had dealt with “significant adversity throughout life” and “a number of traumatic events” including inter-generational violence, exposure to gang activity, addiction, loss and abuse.

Her experiences led to her acting out aggressively, being expelled from several schools, and abusing alcohol and other drugs from a young age. Alcohol had been a “huge issue” for Collier since she was 16; she told the report writer that she regularly drank to the extent that she found herself in trouble. It culminated with her being jailed when she was only 18.

She was introduced to methamphetamine at age 15 and had used up to a quarter of a gram per week.

That upbringing had no doubt set Collier up for a “very difficult and probably very lonely” future, the judge said.

Her domestic situation with the father of her two children was also difficult but had improved somewhat since his release from prison and his determination to stop using illicit drugs and disassociate himself from gang connections. He’d given back his gang patch.

Following that lead, Collier had also stopped using meth.

She had begun appropriate counselling for her various issues and had attended 14 sessions. She and her partner were adopting new strategies to deal with problems.

“Well done to you and your partner. You’re on the right track to making those positive changes and I encourage you to do so. It’s not going to be easy,” Judge Bolstad told Collier.