KEY POINTS:
A man stubbed a cigarette out in a 12-year-old girl's face after she rejected his sexual advances.
Aaron James Blake, 22, was jailed today for 2-1/2 years over that incident and a separate case where he punched the girl.
Blake, of Hastings, had previously pleaded guilty to one charge of injuring with intent to injure and one of assault, relating to the incidents a week apart in December 2004.
There was no explanation in Napier District Court on Friday for the delay in the sentencing for the offences, which happened when Blake was 19.
In one incident, Blake confronted the girl in her mother's bedroom and asked for sex.
When she refused he punched her in the eye, which was left blackened for up to six weeks.
A week later, after drinking, he began bullying the girl, punched her to the floor, lay on top of her, and pushed the lighted cigarette into her face.
Judge Tony Adeane said Blake had had numerous convictions, starting with Youth Court appearances in 2000, and with "a propensity for violence in the face of any form of rebuttal".
A two-year sentence was imposed for injuring the girl, with six months added for the other assault.
- NZPA
