KEY POINTS:
A judge yesterday spoke out sharply against domestic violence, saying it was unacceptable and offenders can expect to be jailed.
"I say it again and again and again and the customers keep coming," Judge Thomas Ingram commented in the Tauranga District Court as a "long line of men" appeared on charges of assaulting women.
The offence carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
"There is far too much serious violence against women. Every day I sit here and hear this, and I take it seriously," the judge said. "I just do not accept there is any place at all in our society for this type of thing. A great deal of harm is done to women, not only physically but emotionally as well.
"There is a price to be paid for it. I am not going to put up with it. Men who come before me can expect prison."
When lawyer Bill Nabney appealed for lenience for his client, Mt Maunganui builder Warwick Broughton, Judge Ingram said he did not regard causing two black eyes, bruises and grazing as a minor assault. "It was not just a one-off push and shove."
The court was told that on June 29, Broughton and his partner of two years argued after she decided to leave him.
Prosecutor Sergeant Sean Brennan said the 50-year-old defendant threw a glass of red wine over the woman.
In a further confrontation in the kitchen, he grabbed her in a bear hug and both fell to the floor. Broughton then held the victim down with his hand over her mouth to prevent her yelling out. There was another struggle when she came into his bedroom while he was in bed.
"This was a sustained assault. All he had to do was walk away," Judge Ingram said. "The law recognises that women are vulnerable and I am here to apply it."
If it was not for the fact that Broughton had to pay $1500 reparation, he would have been jailed, said the judge. Instead, he imposed a sentence of 100 hours of community work.
An 18-year-old unemployed Tauranga man who punched his fiancee twice on the head on two occasions in June also got 100 hours' community work. Robin Alexander Kent had earlier drunk a 24-can box of bourbon and cola with a group of friends.
Defence lawyer Bridie Henderson said the couple, who were "high school sweethearts" and expecting a baby, remained committed to each other and had strong family support.
Sentencing Kent, Judge Ingram said: "You make darn sure you never lift a hand to a woman again, otherwise Waikeria [Prison] is the place for you.
"Quite a few people in there know about violence. You might even be on the receiving end of a bit of what they hand out."
A third man, whose lawyer Liz Jamieson said had "never laid a finger on his wife before", was given a sentence of 80 hours' community work.
Mt Maunganui truck driver Bryce Vickers, 35, got into an argument when his partner asked him to make their hungry children some lunch and he replied he would do it when he was ready.
When things got heated, the victim put the two youngest children in the car.
Telling her "you're not taking my kids anywhere", Vickers grabbed the woman by the shoulders while wrapping one of his legs around hers and threw her to the concrete floor, hurting her shoulder.
- NZPA
