Man punched woman unconscious outside Blenheim tavern over ‘hurtful’ comment about unborn child

A woman was knocked unconscious by a man upset she had made a "hurtful comment" about his unborn child. Photo / 123rf

A man punched a young woman so hard in the head that she fell back unconscious all because she “said something hurtful” about his unborn child.

Blenheim man Gary Mackie was sentenced to five months home detention in the Blenheim District Court today for the “nasty” violence meted out to the young woman, and further serious driving matters that prompted a judge to say it was one thing if he wanted to kill himself but incredibly selfish to put others at risk.

The 24-year-old father-of-three with a long-term partner had earlier admitted charges of injuring by an unlawful act, driving dangerously, failing to stop for police and driving while drunk.

An aggravating feature of the violence charge was that it involved an assault to the head.

“The victim was a young woman who fell to the ground unconscious,” said Mackie’s lawyer Jackie van Schalkwyk.

Judge Tony Zohrab said one-punch strikes were often a “lottery” in terms of the outcome for the victim.

He said some people died while others bounced back up, and a huge number suffered significant injury and some were left brain-damaged for life.

“This really was an incredibly serious offence involving nasty violence,” Judge Zohrab said.

On a night in August last year, the victim, described as a 25-year-old petite woman, met Mackie at a Blenheim tavern. They were otherwise unknown to each other.

The victim went outside where an argument between the pair started and escalated to “pushing” as others tried to defuse the situation.

As the woman tried to go back inside Mackie, who is of a solid build, punched her with a closed fist with such force she fell back unconscious and hit her head on the ground.

She was left with facial injuries and a cut to the back of her head.

Mackie told the police he had punched her because “she said something hurtful about his unborn child”.

Judge Zohrab said whatever was said, there was no justification for such a response.

Mackie was on bail for that offence when just before midnight on October 21 last year he was seen driving on Blenheim’s High St in such a manner that he attracted the attention of the police.

They saw him approach a roundabout at speed, in an area with a 30km/h speed limit. Police activated their lights but Mackie didn’t stop. They stopped the pursuit when Mackie reached the main road between Blenheim and Picton and was seen passing vehicles at excessive speed.

Several minutes later he lost control of his car, crossed the centre line, hit a wire rope and the car spun to a stop.

Judge Zohrab said that was 13.5km from where the police had first seen him.

“It’s one thing if you want to kill yourself by driving like a mad man but it’s incredibly selfish to do that to someone else,” he said.

Mackie was taken to hospital where a blood alcohol test showed a “very high” reading of 163 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 50mg per 100ml of blood.

Judge Zohrab set a starting point of 13 months in prison on the lead charge of injuring by an unlawful act. He said the driving matters would not have normally attracted a term of imprisonment but because they were accompanied by serious violence and committed while Mackie was on bail, a two-month uplift was added that led to a term he considered was proportionate.

Mackie was given credit for his guilty pleas and disqualified from driving for 12 months on the driving charges, except on the failing to stop charge for which he was convicted only, to arrive at the endpoint of five months of home detention.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.