Slammed partner’s arm in car door, ‘just angry’

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A man turned himself in to police after deliberately slamming his partner’s arm in a car door during an argument at Tatapouri Beach, Gisborne District Court was told.

Rihara Eruera Raharuhi Maxwell, 34, appeared for sentence by Judge Warren Cathcart via AV-link from a prison remand unit.

He was jailed for 12 months with six months special and standard release conditions after pleading guilty to charges arising out of this and an earlier incident involving the same complainant — his partner of about four years and the mother of their child.

The charges were assaulting a female, threatening to kill, assault with a blunt instrument, assault on a person in a family relationship, wilful damage, and a breach of bail.

Maxwell has already served the equivalent of most of the sentence while on remand and will be released in about a month’s time.

The end sentence included two months’ discount for remorse, which Judge Cathcart said Maxwell demonstrated by handing himself in to police after the second incident. Maxwell had also been willing to attend restorative justice.

Discount for guilty pleas was more limited. While Maxwell was quick to take responsibility for that second incident, he waited nearly a year to plead guilty to the first, the judge said.

On July 17 last year, Maxwell and the woman were drinking with some of her family when he became angry, believing she was showing an interest in another man.

He verbally abused her and threw a half-full can of alcohol at her, which hit her on the lip. He punched her twice in the face with a closed fist, causing swelling and bruising to one of her eyes.

The woman tried to leave but Maxwell grabbed her by the hair and said, “you can f***ing stay here until the morning”.

Questioned by police later, Maxwell said he couldn’t remember his actions but if the woman said he did it then he must have.

The second incident was in January this year, when Maxwell was on bail for the first.

He and the woman borrowed her father’s vehicle to go diving for seafood at Tatapouri Beach.

After leaving the water, they began to argue. As the woman opened the driver door of the vehicle, Maxwell deliberately slammed it on her arm.

When she commented about it, Maxwell punched her in the face knocking her to the ground and causing a cut to the bridge of her nose.

Maxwell got into the passenger seat, told the woman to get in, and pulled her into the driver seat. He pulled the driver’s door shut so hard that he ripped the door handle off. He broke off the rear vision mirror.

The woman felt dazed and dizzy and was sitting waiting for her nose to stop bleeding when Maxwell punched her again twice in the side of her head. He pointed the car key at her and threatened to stab her throat with it.

Maxwell told police he was “just angry and did something stupid”.

Determining sentence, the judge set a starting point for the lead offence — the threat to kill — of eight months. For the other offences during the second incident, he applied uplift, adjusted for totality, of four months.

There were uplifts of two months for offending during the first incident, one month for Maxwell’s bail status at the time, and two months for his previous relevant convictions, which the judge noted were extensive.