A man jailed for repeated breaches of a protection order was "institutionalised" to the point he treated his home as a prison, Masterton District Court heard on Thursday.
Carl Joseph Forward, 42, was sentenced to 11 months' jail for breaching a protection order by assaulting a protected person, and for three months for the assault.
Judge Patrick Grace said Forward had approached the victim after "there had been an argument over what could only be described as trivia".
Forward had followed the woman to another address and had approached her when she was sitting in a plastic chair.
As he approached she had kicked out with her feet, but he had pushed her leg aside, and "the chair leg broke and she fell on the floor".