Man jailed after threatening lover with a knife when she took her bra off at a pub

Trevor Oldham was armed with a knife when he tried to get into his lover's home. Photo / 123rf

When a man’s lover took her bra off at the pub for a laugh, he didn’t see the humour in it and so he went to her house armed with a knife to confront her.

Trevor Oldham tried to break into the woman’s home through her cat door, attempting to unlock it from the inside before being caught by the woman and told to leave.

The 59-year-old unsuccessfully defended charges of burglary and threatening to do grievous bodily harm at trial in the Hamilton District Court, presided over by Judge Brett Crowley who found him guilty of both charges.

Most of the December 15, 2022, incident was caught on the woman’s CCTV system.

At his sentencing yesterday, Judge Crowley said the victim found the incident “scary”, while Oldham’s lawyer admitted his client had “some issues to work through”.

Oldham and the victim had been in a brief relationship prior to the incident.

After hearing she had jokingly taken her bra off while with friends at the pub, he drove to her rural Morrinsville home armed with a flashlight and a knife around 1.45am.

Walking around to her back porch, he tried to break into the house by reaching through the cat door and unlocking the door.

But he was unsuccessful and was spotted by the victim who repeatedly told him to “go home”, before spying the knife.

Oldham responded, “I will not”, and continued to demand to be let in the house, yelling “I will fucking get you mate” while waving the knife.

As the woman continued to tell him to leave, he said “you see this knife here, if you let me down, you are going to get it”.

He stayed at the house, trying to get inside for more than seven minutes before he finally left when the woman threatened to call police.

At his sentencing, defence counsel Jared Bell told Judge Crowley the defining feature of the offending was Oldham going to the property armed with a knife so late at night.

However, he never entered the house or damaged anything, Bell argued.

“After some remonstration and words, he has left the property and gone.

“He accepts he’s got some issues to work through.”

Crown prosecutor Paige Noorland noted, however, Oldham tried to blame the woman for the death of his brother, whom she had also previously been in a relationship with.

Noorland submitted Oldham didn’t appear to have any insight into his offending and had not shown any remorse.

He also had previous convictions for threatening to kill and breaching a protection order which Noorland said reflected his inability to properly deal with the breakdown of his relationships.

Oldham had argued at trial that he did not mean what he was caught saying on CCTV at the woman’s house.

“But you clearly made threats to her, and were clearly holding a knife”, Judge Crowley said.

The victim found it “very upsetting and scary and that was obvious from watching the footage of how you were behaving that night”.

The judge said the fact Oldham found the woman responsible for his brother’s death was “wrong and irresponsible”.

A protection order in the woman’s favour was granted and Oldham was jailed for 21 months.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for eight years and been a journalist for 19.