KEY POINTS:
A Linton soldier has escaped jail time for a prolonged Valentine's Day beating of her lesbian lover.
But her future in the military has yet to be determined, an army spokesman said.
In Palmerston North District Court this afternoon, Judge Nevin Dawson sentenced the woman, 33, to 250 hours of community work. She has been allowed permanent name suppression.
She had been warned she faced a prison sentence after earlier pleading guilty to common assault.
The court was told the woman attacked her girlfriend in her Palamerston North house after she had been spurned.
The victim was hauled around the house by her hair and shirt while being punched and kicked in a 90 minute assault. She was called a "fat, ugly bitch" and ended up in her bed weeping.
Today the accused's lawyer, Gordon Paine, said the woman disputed the severity and duration of the attack, and said violence was not only offered but also returned. "They were fighting each other."
However, the woman accepted she was the aggressor toward her victim, who had been her partner for some time before they separated in the middle of last year.
The woman had voluntarily attended anger management and there was the possibility of reconciliation.
"She faces perhaps the loss of her future, of her career, but perhaps not a loss of her relationship," he said.
Judge Dawson said the woman had gone to the house to apologise for an incident earlier that day, and should have left when she was told to.
The assault was prolonged and serious. The victim appeared to have been vulnerable and unable to defend herself.
"Any crime involving violence is repugnant to society. Any crime involving violence over a prolonged period is even more so."
However, he said she would not be sent to jail.
At the time of the assault, the woman had been about to serve in Afghanistan but could not accept the deployment due to the charge.
An army spokesman based at Linton, Lieutenant Geoff Faraday, said a full and careful review of the woman's career and future would be undertaken as a priority.
"The army takes any sort of abuse seriously and has recently had a campaign against inter-family violence."
- NZPA
