Hamilton father jailed after ‘callous’ attack on woman in front of child

A Hamilton man who was bailed after attacking a woman then went on to carry out an even more horrific assault on her. Photo / 123rf

Warning: Contains distressing content.

A child was left to watch as her father kicked her mother in the head to “the point of unconsciousness” before finally ending the horrific attack with a punch so fierce that it broke her nose.

That assault dished out by the man, who NZME has chosen not to name, was while he was on bail for an attack on the same woman just two months earlier, in May last year.

Judge Paul Mabey KC has described his behaviour as “callous” and said he could see why the woman never wanted to see him again.

The man was jailed this week for three years and four months on multiple charges including representative charges of assault with intent to injure and threatening to kill.

Despite having many charges, including kidnapping, dismissed in a deal with the Crown, it didn’t alter the seriousness of the violence he inflicted.

It began in May last year when the man turned up at the woman’s emergency housing accommodation in Hamilton, where she also lived with their child.

Over the next few days, he subjected her to abuse and threats, including threats to kill, behaviour dubbed by Judge Mabey as being a “dominant bully”.

Later, the woman was driving but the man took over. She tried to get out of the vehicle so he punched her in the face while wearing a large ring, causing a forehead injury, and continued to tell her she couldn’t get out.

They returned home and he locked her and their daughter in a room, not allowing either of them out.

The case was heard in Hamilton District Court this week.

He was charged over that offending, appeared in court and was bailed, but two months later the woman went to pick up their daughter from him at a Morrinsville property.

The man was again in an aggressive mood, telling her to f*** off and elbowed her in the chest, exhibiting “paranoid insecurity” over alleged infidelity.

They went inside and were in a room, where he put his daughter on the ground.

He then put his shoes on and, in what Judge Mabey said was a “callous, intimidating and bullying way”, told her to cover her head while he “kicked her to the point of unconsciousness”.

“She thought she was going to be kicked again and was sitting on a bed with her hands over her face waiting for the next blow.

“She tried to leave the room and you kept pushing her back on the bed.

“At that point, you pushed your thumbs into her mouth and pushed them into the ground, and hit her in the throat a number of times when she tried to speak and used a child’s toy as a weapon against her throat.

“You elbowed her to the right side of her head, and the back of her head and then you kneed her in the head.

“But you weren’t satisfied with that.

“Although she was in and out of consciousness while you were doing that, you waited until she regained consciousness as she was trying to get up from the bed and punched her full on to the nose, breaking her nose and causing profuse bleeding.”

She was left unconscious and woke up on the ground.

“You then, in a ‘manly and chivalrous way’, ordered her to clean up the blood from her face.”

She then managed to escape.

At the hearing in Hamilton District Court, counsel Stephen Taylor said the man grew up in a household where domestic violence was normalised.

He then suffered the tragic loss of a woman he loved at age 18 which led him down a path of drugs and alcohol and violence learned as a child.

Taylor said the man knew what his issues were and was keen to work on them and had since been accepted into the Grace Foundation.

Judge Mabey accepted there was a nexus between his background and the assaults that required a discount.

However, he noted the impact on the victim who was left with bruising and black eyes after the May attack.

She sustained a fractured nose and endured ongoing breathing difficulties, along with scratches from the kicks and punches from the July assault.

“The point she makes very clear is that your daughter saw all of this. It seems you couldn’t care less about that,” the judge said.

The woman had also struggled to get housing after being evicted due to the man’s behaviour and causing problems.

His daughter also now struggled; she was scared of the dark, didn’t like being alone, and made sure all the windows and doors were locked.

“She wants nothing more to do with you. She does not want to see you again and who could blame her for that.”

Judge Mabey took a start point of four-and-a-half years before applying various discounts and jailing the man for three years and four months.

He was also disqualified from driving for 12 months.

However, given he had been in custody since the incidents he was now eligible for parole due to time served.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for eight years and been a journalist for 19.