Eight-year term for tomahawk attack

A vicious assault on his long-time partner has resulted in an eight-year prison sentence for an Opotiki man, with a non-parole period of four years.

Graeme Rudy Alex Herewini, 42, struck his long-time partner in the head with a tomahawk during a drunken argument and then kicked her numerous times while she lay cowering on the ground, Whakatane District Court was told last week.

When police arrived the woman was lying in a pool of blood, flitting in and out of consciousness.

She was hospitalised for three nights with serious injuries that included a fractured skull, a laceration to her head that required stitches, a broken nose and swelling to her eyes which caused temporary blindness.

Herewini was convicted of wounding with intent to causing grievous bodily harm, and breaching a protection order.

Crown solicitor Duncan McWilliams said this assault was "about as bad as it gets" and "thankfully it didn't result in loss of life".

"This was a particularly vicious assault by a man who has an appalling history of breaching protection orders and violence," Mr McWilliams said.

Defence lawyer Roger Gowing said Herewini was "deeply remorseful" for this "shameful piece of behaviour".

He accepted that he had caused significant injury to the woman and that he didn't deserve to be allowed back with his partner and their seven children.

Mr Gowing said Herewini offered no excuse for the attack.

"You are a man with a past," Judge Thomas Ingram said.

Herewini had an eight-page list of convictions involving property offences and violence that dated back to the 1990s and continued "without cessation" for a decade and a half, the judge said.

"The victim has been severely traumatised and so have the children who saw a great deal of this assault," he said.

- NZPA