A Darfield man who committed a violent and prolonged attack on a Runanga woman was yesterday jailed for two years.
Stephen James Reid, 43, admitted charges of assault with intent to injure and unlawful possession of a shotgun. He also admitted a new charge of breaching a protection order by threatening the woman.
The Greymouth District Court heard that Reid had contacted the woman and asked her to alter her evidence. When she refused Reid said he would come back with a car full of mates and sort her out. "You'd better watch your back," he said.
Reid and the woman had been in a long distance relationship for almost two years. When he visited her on Christmas Eve they argued and Reid kicked the woman's truck before verbally and physically abusing her.
He punched her twice, placed her in a headlock so tight that her breath was cut, and punched her again, splitting a lip. When the woman's 12-year-old daughter came out with a baseball bat and told him to stop, Reid took the bat off her and taunted the mother with it before resuming the attack, punching her repeatedly about the legs and torso until his victim picked up a metal bucket full of coal and hit him with it.