Pregnant woman stabbed on forecourt at Taranaki petrol station

Brooklyn Angel Gaby appeared in New Plymouth District Court on Tuesday. Photo / Tara Shaskey

A woman high on meth and armed with a knife entered a petrol station forecourt and stabbed her ex-boyfriend's pregnant partner.

Brooklyn Angel Gaby, 21, knifed the woman in the abdomen and cut her arm, back and sides.

During the foray, she allegedly told the woman, who was four months pregnant at the time, "I hope your baby dies", it was heard in New Plymouth District Court on Tuesday.

At the time, the woman was afraid of exactly that. And although the baby survived the stabbing, the woman remains traumatised and fearful for both her life and the life of her child.

"She was in shock at the time and has been in a state of disbelief and paranoia since the offending," Judge Gregory Hikaka said.

She called the violence "inhumane" and struggled to comprehend how any person could be capable of such an act.

Moments prior to the attack on August 4 last year, the woman and her boyfriend had stopped to get petrol at a service station in Pātea, South Taranaki.

The woman was in the driver's seat while her boyfriend was at the pump.

Without warning, Gaby approached the car and opened the passenger's side door.

The woman quickly exited but Gaby was fast too, pouncing on the woman and striking her a number of times.

The man tried to separate the pair and copped three punches from Gaby in the process.

Brooklyn Angel Gaby appeared in New Plymouth District Court on Tuesday. Photo / Tara Shaskey

Gaby and the man had been in a relationship for about two years before they separated in August 2020.

As the attack unfolded, he didn't initially realise Gaby was the aggressor.

He hadn't seen her for some time and was focused on protecting his partner and their unborn child.

Now, six months on, he still finds himself "looking over his shoulder", Judge Hikaka said, referencing a victim impact statement.

Defence lawyer Jo Woodcock said Gaby was once a hard-working woman who owned her own home and enjoyed healthy relationships.

But she and her former partner fell into a lifestyle of methamphetamine use and over time they lost their jobs and their home.

They lived a chaotic lifestyle until they broke up. Gaby moved to her grandmother's house to sort herself out but through the continued drug use, her family relationships deteriorated.

"She was moving in circles which were pretty toxic, dangerous and ultimately, in my submission, caused her to offend in this way," Woodcock said.

Gaby, who has little recollection of the attack, has been remanded in custody at Arohata Prison and has used that time to reflect on her behaviour, rebuild her relationships and begin to rehabilitate.

Woodcock argued for a sentence of home detention but Crown prosecutor Laura Blencowe said the circumstances of the offending called for imprisonment.

Blencowe said there was a degree of premeditation involved given Gaby armed herself with a knife before approaching the woman, who was vulnerable at the time.

Both the man and woman have suffered psychologically from the incident, Blencowe said.

Judge Hikaka said Gaby's drug use caused a "significant cascade of negative effects" but still nothing had motivated her to step away from it.

That was indicative of the strength of her addiction, he said.

"It's this offending and your time remanded in custody that has caused something of a reflection and a desire to better in the future."

But it was too early in Gaby's rehabilitation process to release her, Judge Hikaka said, and the risk to the community was still too great.

As a result, she was jailed for two years and six months on the admitted charge of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.