Butcher jailed for 10 years for maiming wife

Xiao Ping Shen took the day off work, stopped in at the butchery where he worked to get a knife then waited outside his estranged wife's shop until she was alone.

"When she least expected it" he dashed into the central Auckland business and stabbed her through the chest.

It was followed by three further wounds to her knee, hand and thigh, and as she tried to flee, Shen dragged her back into the shop.

"I'm in no doubt you intended to kill her," Judge Mary-Beth Sharp said of the March 2012 incident.

The victim bled so much, she lost a kidney and had to be resuscitated by medical staff.

Swearing his innocence, Shen took the matter to trial but not only did the jury find him guilty of the charge of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, they also asked the judge why a charge of attempted murder had not been laid.

At sentencing in Auckland District Court today, the defendant maintained his innocence, claiming his ex-wife had inflicted the wounds on herself.

"Since having no mental illness, the only conclusion the court can draw is that you're a dishonest, callous and vicious man," the judge said.

"Your cold lack of remorse is chilling."

The couple's relationship had broken down in the months leading up to the attack and the victim had withdrawn her support from Shen's residency application.

Judge Sharp said the incident was provoked by "vengeance".

The woman now had to live with the medical complications of only having one kidney and a permanently injured knee.

She described entering a relationship with Shen as "a major lapse in her good judgement".

Judge Sharp jailed him for 10 years, calling the stabbing the very worst offending of its kind.

Shen will be deported on completion of his prison term.