Hawke’s Bay man Joel Leef faces eight-year jail term for ‘brutal, callous’ violence against woman

Joel Leef appeared in the Napier District Court on family violence charges after assaulting his partner over a period of three weeks. Photo / Ric Stevens

WARNING: This article describes extreme family violence and may be upsetting.

A woman six months pregnant suffered a miscarriage while being subjected to three weeks of “brutal, callous and degrading” violence, which left her with wounds in places down to the bone.

During her ordeal, the woman was forced to undress and get into a dog kennel, and was repeatedly hit with a hockey stick.

After the hockey stick broke, Joel Ataahua Leef thrust the broken end into his partner’s mouth, causing cuts to the inside of her mouth.

In hospital later, she had eight wounds which required irrigation and debridement - the removal of dead or infected tissue.

Three wounds on her shins and ankle were found to have exposed bone.

Today, Leef, 38, appeared in the Napier District Court to be sentenced for causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and on other family violence, firearms and cannabis charges.

The court was told he inflicted the injuries on the woman while experiencing methamphetamine-fuelled paranoia at an isolated property in Central Hawke’s Bay between April 24 and May 12, last year.

A Crown summary of facts said the violence started after the woman falsely told Leef during a drive that she had been unfaithful and was planning to leave him.

In an interview later, she told police she did not know why she had made those things up, but said they were both high on methamphetamine at the time.

Leef became angry and assaulted the woman while he was driving, striking her in the face and chest.

When they returned to their rural home after dark, Leef told the woman to undress and get into the dog kennel, where she stayed for about half an hour.

Over the next three weeks, the situation between him and the woman was “volatile”, the summary said.

A few days after the dog-kennel incident, the woman, who was about six months pregnant, miscarried.

She did not want medical help and Leef comforted her, but the summary said he also believed she was not sufficiently upset.

Leef ‘exceedingly angry’

Leef became “at times exceedingly angry”, repeatedly threatening and assaulting her.

Multiple times, he told her that if she tried to leave the relationship, he would kill her or her family members, or “all the people she loved”.

“For the most part the complainant did not believe that he would actually follow through with his threats but on a couple of occasions, after serious violence was inflicted, she felt like she was going to die.”

Leef struck the woman with a closed fist to her body and head on multiple occasions.

The punching caused a brain bleed, a fractured eye socket and other head injuries.

The woman believed she lost consciousness at least three times during her ordeal.

Leef also beat the woman on her legs, shoulders and arms with hockey sticks, sometimes repeatedly in the same place, to open up wounds.

Joel Leef appeared for sentencing in the Napier District Court. Photo NZME

The woman said later that a wound on her shin was caused by “six real good hits”.

Some of the wounds became infected but the woman did not want to go anywhere for treatment because she did not want authorities to learn what was happening, in case her 2-year-old son was taken away from her.

The boy was present at the property all the time the violence was being meted out.

Although Leef applied iodine, creams or homemade remedies to the woman’s injuries, he also continued to strike her in places away from the wounds.

Careful not to break bones

“He was careful however not to strike her so hard that he would break her bones,” the Crown summary said.

Leef also impeded the woman’s breathing several times by either squeezing her neck or holding the hockey stick against her throat.

On May 12, 2024, Leef punched the woman and caused her to lose consciousness.

He then told her she was going to get beatings every day for no reason, and he was going to get another girlfriend.

The woman decided she could not endure the violence any longer and persuaded Leef to take her to a petrol station in Waipukurau to get food.

When Leef went inside, leaving the keys in the car, the woman climbed into the driver’s seat and left with the little boy.

She drove to the Hastings Police Station, where officers had her admitted to hospital.

Leef was arrested at his home the following day.

Police found ammunition and a homemade pistol, which could not be fired because of a weak bolt-head spring.

They also found 32 cannabis plants of varying maturity and 2.36kg of cannabis heads in a plastic container.

In addition to the lead charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, Leef pleaded guilty to nine other charges including wounding with intent, injuring with intent, threatening to cause grievous bodily harm, strangulation, threatening to kill, assault on a person in a family relationship, unlawful possession of a firearm, cultivating cannabis and possession of cannabis for sale.

‘Cowardly, ugly, disgusting’

Judge Richard Earwaker sentenced Leef to eight years and one month in prison on the lead charge, with no parole for half that term, and imposed shorter concurrent sentences for the other charges.

Leef’s counsel, Rachel Adams, said he had written the woman a “heartfelt” letter of apology and had described his behaviour as “cowardly, ugly and disgusting”.

Crown prosecutor Clayton Walker said the offending was driven by meth-induced paranoia, and was at times brutal, callous and degrading.

The victim, he said, remained stoic and forgiving.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.