Jordan Peter Rawiri Nuku, 35, was sentenced to nine years and two months' jail for the violent attack against his former partner in which she was stabbed 15 times. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today
Jordan Peter Rawiri Nuku, 35, was sentenced to nine years and two months' jail for the violent attack against his former partner in which she was stabbed 15 times. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today
A Napier man's attack on his former partner, in which she was stabbed 15 times, has changed her life forever, a court has heard as he was sentenced to nine years in jail.
Jordan Peter Rawiri Nuku, 35, was sentenced in the High Court at Napier before Justice Jan-Marie Doogue on Friday morning, having pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted murder and another of breaching a final protection order in December last year.
The attack happened on Saturday morning of March 21, 2020, as the woman sat in a car outside Te Awa Dairy, near the intersection of Ellison St and Georges Dr, Napier South.
Appearing via audiovisual link, his ex-partner gave an emotional victim impact statement detailing how the attack had left her with "multiple scars", some highly visible, and she was had been suffering from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder since the attack.
Through tears she said the event had taken a toll on her mental and physical health.
"I struggle to understand why someone I was with for so long would try to kill me."
Justice Doogue described the "horrendous" attack, which lasted 40 seconds, as "frenzied and sustained".
Nuku had just picked up his niece from Napier when he spotted the victim's car parked by the dairy - he had been released from jail just weeks before after being sentenced for breaching a previous protection order related to the victim.
He parked his car about 100m behind hers and approached the front passenger seat with his hood up.
After opening the door he lunged across to the drivers seat, stabbing the victim in the neck and torso 15 times, the car rocking visibly as he did so.
The victim managed to open the door and fall out, prompting passers-by to respond.
She suffered serious injuries and spent several days in the Hawke's Bay Hospital intensive care unit.
Jordan Peter Rawiri Nuku, 35, appeared for sentencing in the High Court at Napier having pleaded guilty to attempted murder and breaching a protection order.Photo / File
"The attack was unprovoked, prolonged and extremely violent," Justice Doogue said.
"You wanted to kill rather than harm.
"She was vulnerable and could not escape [the car]."
She said Nuku had shown little remorse, from a letter written to the victim from prison which included the line "you should have realised snitches get stitches", right up until the "critical point" of sentencing on Friday.
Crown prosecutor Steven Manning described the attack, in which he "very nearly killed the victim", as part of a much larger "disturbing pattern" relating to partner violence.
He cited 10 previous convictions relating to previous partners, three of which related to the current victim.
"His offending, but for the early offending, is all related to his inability to cope with the breakup of relationships."
Nuku's defence lawyer Eric Forster called for discount of 15 per cent to account of cultural background and a relatively difficult upbringing.
He also called for a 20 per cent discount for guilty pleas.
Adopting a sentence starting point of 11 years and five months' jail, Justice Doogue accepted their were cultural factors which had contributed to the offending.
However, this did not excuse the very serious nature of the offending, she said.
