Man jailed after eye-gouging assault on daughter

A WANGANUI woman, whose father was jailed this week for violently attacking her with a walking stick and trying to gouge her eyes, said yesterday she was relieved the sentence had removed him from her life.
"It's like it happened yesterday [it's] five months down the track and I don't feel anything [for him] nothing's going to make it come back the love. I don't think time will ever make that come back," the woman said.
On Thursday, her father, Joe Moses Mohi Tupaea, 59, was sentenced in the Wanganui District Court to three years and three months' jail and ordered to pay $2000 reparation for injury with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Yesterday his 37-year-old daughter said she felt a weight had been lifted off her and her family after learning of the sentence.
"I felt so good this morning, after I got off the phone with the prosecutor I thought 'great' - I said to my partner I'm taking the dog for a walk. I can be myself again."
On March 5 this year, Tupaea visited his daughter's house, they had a heated argument, and he "lost control", attacking her in front of two of her children.
Reading the summary of facts to the court, Judge John Clapham described how Tupaea attacked his daughter with a solid wood walking stick, hitting her forcibly on the arm and striking four blows to her head and face.
He then held her down by her hair and attempted to gouge out her eyes with his fingers, using a "hooking" motion. His attack left lacerations and bruising to her face and swelling and bleeding behind her eyes, which could have resulted in blindness.
Yesterday Tupaea's daughter told the Wanganui Chronicle the attack had left her feeling weak and also ashamed that she could not stop the attack.
"I've always been a really strong person, but I couldn't stop him& I felt really powerless," she said.
It had also deeply affected her children, who had feared he would return to the house.
"[The attack] just felt continuous - the beating with the stick and when he got me on the bed it was just continuous fists and fingers gouging in my eyes& he was ripping at my face," she said.
"I pleaded with him to stop because I couldn't see out of my eyes, my face was covered with blood& It felt like he was going to rip my eyes out."
Usually an avid walker, the nursing student had not gone out walking since March because she feared running in to her father.
In court, Tupaea, who has previous convictions for common assault, cried in the dock, supported in court by two of his daughters.
Defence counsel Roger Crowley said Tupaea's remorse was "clear and palpable" and that he wanted to make peace.
It was clear Tupaea, who had attended an anger management course, had a significant anger and alcohol problem, he said.
Although he wasn't drunk during the attack, he was a "time bomb waiting to happen", he said.
"This man has lost much through his actions and unfortunately it's a member of his family he may have lost forever anything the court does will pale into insignificance compared with that," Mr Crowley said.
However, yesterday Tupaea's daughter said it was too late and questioned the genuineness of his remorse.
"He tries to be all apologetic, he says that he's sorry, he puts his guilt back on us he's feeling guilty, but he always wants us feeling sorry for him that he's done that," she said.
Tupaea's daughter urged other victims of violence to "be strong" and to report incidents to police.
"Don't take it, report it. If something gets reported they are forced to get help for their actions; don't put up with it stand up," she said.