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A judge has told a Tauranga man who admitted assaulting his partner after he ordered her to cook him a meal that it reminded him of a scene from the movie Once Were Warriors.
Robert Gillespie, 69, retired, of Otumoetai, pleaded guilty to a charge of male assaults
female when he appeared in Tauranga District Court before Judge John McDonald.
In Once Were Warriors, the main character Jake "The Muss" Heke orders his partner to cook him some eggs and assaults her when she gets lippy.
"I hope you are not proud of what occurred," Judge McDonald told Gillespie.
"It's not acceptable to ever hit any woman or throw a meal across the room because you don't like it and force her to get out of her own home like you did on this occasion."
The court was told that about 5.45pm on September 22 Gillespie returned home after a meeting where he had been drinking and demanded his partner cook him a meal, which she did.
But Gillespie did not think the meal was good enough. He became angry and, as a result, his partner started crying and tried to leave. This made him more angry and he slapped her across the face with an open hand.
Then he picked up the plate of food and smashed it against the wall.
His frightened partner ran to a neighbour's house and called the police.
Duty lawyer Glenn Dixon told Judge McDonald that Gillespie denied slapping his partner but admitted pushing her after they got into a heated argument about why he was late home, where he had been and with whom, and she picked up a beer bottle.
Mr Dixon said his instructions from Gillespie were that he thought his partner was going to hit him with the bottle and things boiled over from there, but he denied throwing the plate of food.
Gillespie, who had already been in custody for 36 hours, which had delivered a salient lesson, was in a position to pay a fine, the lawyer said.
The woman told Judge McDonald she wanted her partner back but she could not believe how different Gillespie's version of the incident was from hers.
Judge McDonald said Gillespie's version of the incident was "completely at odds" with the victim's and asked her to speak to the court's victim adviser before the sentencing.
Later, he said he would take into account the time Gillespie had spent in the cells, his partner's charitable view and his lack of previous convictions. He imposed a fine of $500 plus $130 court costs.
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