Gang man gets 9 years for beating his partner

Joseph Heke Kingi thrashed his partner with a metal bar so badly that her blood splattered the bedroom walls.

She was smashed into a mirror, then dragged to a shower to have her hair cut off.

He beat her despite protection orders and terrorised her family when she tried to leave him.

Sometimes she was kicked, sometimes punched - the repeated beatings have left her in need of plastic surgery and with permanent injuries to her mouth, leg and left arm.

When told by police he would be charged, he sneered "Where's your evidence?"

Yesterday, Kingi, of Huntly, was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court to a total of nine years in prison on more than 25 charges related to what Judge Robert Wolff described as "extreme repetitive violence" spanning a year, against his partner.

Women's Refuge chief executive Merepeka Raukawa-Tait last night described the lengthy sentence as "quite unique", saying: "There should be more judges like that out there".

The 37-year-old Filthy Few gang member arrived in court with a letter of apology, something Judge Wolff later described as "the equivalent of crocodile tears" after hearing of Kingi's "supernatural control" over the 33-year-old victim.

Crown prosecutor Mark Sturm told how the victim was able to distinguish one of the beatings by remembering her inability to stop the blows and of Kingi beating her in front of others, including her daughter, for whom he "curiously" expressed aroha in the letter.

But despite stints in hospital the woman would refuse to lay complaints against Kingi. She was described as being "powerless, like a puppet in his hands".

Mr Sturm said Kingi's control extended even from prison, where he "tried to wriggle out of what he had done by issuing threats [to stop her from testifying]".

Judge Wolff punished this attempt to corrupt justice by handing down a two-year sentence to be served on top of seven years for the violence-related charges.

For Kingi, Nitin Deobhakta argued that Kingi was not solely responsible for the breakdown of the woman's life - she was a binge alcoholic and no stranger to the culture of gangs and drugs.

She would stand up and "give him lip" saying "a few drinks make you a bit bolder".

This was rejected by Judge Wolff, who said: "No victim deserves what they get ... People in relationships are equals and entitled to express their views without being beaten for it."

Both the woman and her family have been granted permanent name suppression, with the judge describing how they had been driven from their home of many years because of her association with Kingi.

The court heard how the family endured two days of threatening calls from Kingi as late as 3 am, and of unproven allegations relating to shotgun blasts at their home during their attempts to help their daughter to leave him.

Judge Wolff said Kingi was without remorse and lacked understanding of what he had done.

He ordered that a compulsory blood sample be taken for DNA matching.