KEY POINTS:
A man who served two years in the 1990s as one of the country's youngest killers is back behind bars after a brutal attack on his pregnant partner and another beating which put a child in hospital.
Anthony Alfred Afu, 28, is in jail awaiting sentencing after pleading
guilty to injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, male assaults female and injuring with intent to injure. The charges relate to two separate incidents in October and December 2007.
In 1994 he became one of New Zealand's youngest killers when - just weeks after he turned 14 - he attacked John Wahanui with a piece of wood during a drinking session. When Mr Wahanui died, Afu was jailed for two years three months for manslaughter.
He had been due to stand trial in the High Court at Auckland this month on violence charges but pleaded guilty to three charges before the trial began.
A police summary of facts released to the Herald said Afu's partner was drinking with a friend in Otahuhu on December 29, 2007, when Afu picked her up and took her to another address in Otahuhu where he began to punch her in the face and stomach, shouting: "You don't deserve to have my baby."
She received extensive bruising and swelling to her face and stomach.
Four days later the couple went for tests at Middlemore Hospital that showed the baby was dead. The partner told hospital staff the baby's death was the result of an attack on her by two females on Karangahape Rd on New Year's Eve.
Afu was initially charged with procuring an abortion but that charge will not proceed after he entered guilty pleas to the other charges.
Two other charges - male assaults female and injuring with intent to injure - related to another assault three months earlier.
Afu, his partner and her 3-year-old son were parked at the Greenlane McDonald's when Afu assaulted both of them. The boy had to be admitted to hospital for observation with bruises over his entire upper body and face. The partner lost two of her front teeth.
Herald inquiries have shown Afu has been jailed twice more since he was freed on the manslaughter charge in 1997. He spent three months in jail in 2002 and five months in 2006 for assaulting a female.
