Police examine the scene where Donglan Wu critically stabbed her ex-husband's new partner in March 2021. Photo / Hayden Woodward
Police examine the scene where Donglan Wu critically stabbed her ex-husband's new partner in March 2021. Photo / Hayden Woodward
An Auckland woman who broke into her former home in the middle of the night and stabbed her ex-husband's new partner in the neck - after having earlier vowed to "make headlines" while seeing that the ex-husband suffered - was sentenced today to five years and three months' prison.
Donglan Wu, a 51-year-old first-time offender, told a psychologist after her arrest that she had a background of failed relationships and described humiliation due to her former partner's extramarital behaviour. The impact of abandonment might have influenced her actions that night, a psychological report stated.
But Justice Mathew Downs pointed out that Wu has never been diagnosed with a serious or significant mental illness.
"There is probably something in the abandonment proposition, but that does not make your offending any less serious," he said as Wu stood in a dock in the High Court at Auckland wearing light blue hospital scrubs.
Wu pleaded guilty in March to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for the attack in Massey, which had occurred almost exactly one year earlier. She had previously been charged with attempted murder.
She had separated from her husband in December 2020 but didn't move out of the Moire Rd home they shared with their son until March - at which point the other woman moved in, according to court documents.
Wu, who said she was living out of her car at the time, returned to the house uninvited at about 3.10am on the morning of the attack.
"Whilst [the victim] and the other house occupants were asleep, Ms Wu grabbed two regular size gas bottles from the property and placed them by [her] bed," documents state. "Ms Wu then opened the gas bottle nozzles and left the room."
But the other woman noticed Wu standing outside her bedroom door after she awoke to use the bathroom, documents state.
"Ms Wu lunged at her with a knife with an approximately 12 cm blade," according to the agreed summary of facts. "Ms Wu attacked [the woman] with the knife, resulting in lacerations to [her] left arm and scalp. Ms Wu plunged the knife into [her] neck, creating a deep, gaping wound."
The cut to the woman's scalp was to the bone and authorities described her severe neck wound as about 8cm in length. She required surgery and spent about three months in recovery, authorities said.
Emergency responders were called to the home shortly after the attack, after Wu's ex-husband and her son entered the room.
"Ms Wu had previously threatened her former husband, saying she would make him suffer and that he would regret it," court documents state. "She said she wanted to make headlines."
Wu declined to speak to police after her arrest.
But she later told a psychologist that there were only "elements" of premeditation and that she had previously suffered abuse at her husband's hands.
Police examine the scene where Donglan Wu critically stabbed her ex-husband's new partner in March 2021. Photo / Hayden Woodward
"You said you went to the home as you could not sleep, intending to take your son to school later that morning," Justice Downs recounted. "You said you became extremely angry only when you saw the victim's car parked in the driveway."
What Wu told the psychologist wasn't under oath, Downs pointed out, adding that the "facts speak for themselves" in terms of her previous threats to make her ex suffer.
It also cannot be determined just from what she told a psychologist that she suffered abuse, the judge said.
"More importantly, you grievously wounded [the husband's new partner], not your husband, when she posed no danger whatsoever," Downs said. "A deduction [off the overall sentence], therefore, would be an invitation to others to take out their anger on a wholly innocent victim."
Wu, who listened through a Mandarin interpreter, was given a discount of three months due to her limited English and other cultural impediments she might encounter while in prison. But the discount is modest, Downs said, noting that she has lived in New Zealand for 13 years.
The woman Wu stabbed has permanent scars on her arm and neck, the judge noted, adding that the victim remains traumatised by the attack.
"Unsurprisingly, she lives in fear and anxiety," he said.
Downs declined to order a minimum period of imprisonment but did order a protection order for when Wu is released.
