The Solicitor-General has taken the unusual step of attempting to jail a mental health inpatient for slashing a woman's face with a bottle and trying to pervert the course of justice.
Terri-Jean Goodlet, 20, diagnosed with schizophrenia or drug-induced psychosis, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and attempting to pervert the course of justice after the 2009 attack during a street brawl in Gisborne.
Goodlet, who had a history of violent offending, was then ordered by a judge to be treated as an inpatient under the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992.
But the Solicitor-General appealed against that decision, seeking a term of imprisonment.
In its recent decision, the Appeal Court accepted that a jail sentence should have been imposed but because Goodlet had already served time on remand in prison and on electronic bail, she was now simply subject to two years' intensive supervision.
