The incident had also affected his confidence and he now suffered from mood swings due to the drastic change to his lifestyle and ability to provide for his family.
The other male victim had been told he still faced another four to five months of recovery.
He used to be fit and healthy, but now he constantly felt weak and was no longer able to pick up his children for cuddles or play.
“I miss my life before. I miss my life being normal,” his victim impact statement said.
Crown prosecutor Rebecca Mann said given the offending was so serious, together with Nelson being assessed at a high risk of further violent offending, and the enduring effect on the victims, she should be subjected to an MPI of 66 per cent.
Nelson had not signalled any genuine or significant remorse for what happened, and therefore should not receive any further discounts other than that for her early guilty plea.
Mann also sought reparation for both victims which totalled around $63,000.
Nelson’s counsel, Glenn Dixon, said his client was “completely unable” to pay any reparation given her pending prison term.
He said at the time, Nelson was going through her male-female transition and had been kept in a male prison, in isolation for more than 23 hours a day.
She was now in Auckland Womens’ prison where she felt much safer, he said.
She was also keen to engage in drug and alcohol treatment.
He described her as one of the most “extraordinarily complex” people he had dealt with in his career.
Judge Noel Cocurullo couldn’t find many mitigating features.
“Your selfish behaviour and serious offending on this day casts for [victims] a long and traumatic shadow ... it also casts a shadow for their families.
“Each have significantly suffered and are continuing to suffer over your criminal offending against them.”
He agreed that Nelson, who accepted a sentence indication in September, appeared to show little if any, genuine remorse but did note her willingness to rehabilitate, for which he offered a discount of 5 per cent.
However, that was tempered by earlier offending, including while on bail, which resulted in a 2.5 per cent uplift.
He declined to order reparation as it would only retraumatise the victims as Nelson was unable to pay.
The stabbing
Nelson entered the Sahara Indian Restaurant in Leamington through a rear door about 8.35pm on May 4 this year.
The 31-year-old walked into the kitchen area and stabbed a man and a woman who were working, followed by another man - a customer - who tried to help the victims.
Court documents reveal Nelson entered the kitchen, with one arm raised and, holding a knife in their clenched fist, approached the man “in a quick and aggressive manner” before stabbing him in the left shoulder in a downwards motion.
The customer was stabbed in the right side of his abdomen and lost about a litre of blood from the wound.
The woman’s injuries were deemed “severe” and included a laceration to the left side of her face and a stab wound to her upper left back which, as a result, punctured her right lung causing it to collapse and blood to flow into her chest cavity.
Despite her injuries, the female victim ran out the front doors of the restaurant and across the road to the BP service station to get help.
Meanwhile, Nelson walked out of the restaurant holding a chair, and then threw it at the front windows smashing them.
Nelson was also sentenced on charges of assaulting a person in a family relationship, assaulting police, assault, two of resisting police, and failing to appear on court bail from incidents prior to the stabbing.
