Waikato Hindu priest Jainesh Prasad risks deportation after conviction for assaulting woman

Hamilton man Jainesh Prasad, 40, will now face a deportation hearing after being convicted at Hamilton District Court on representative violence charges. Photo / 123rf

A Hindu priest is facing deportation after failing in his bid to avoid conviction for violence against a woman that included him pressing his fingers into her eyeballs, slapping her, and isolating her from others.

Jainesh Prasad, 40, appeared in Hamilton District Court today for sentencing on representative charges of assaulting with intent to injure, assaulting a person in a family relationship, and breaching a protection order.

Over 12 months, Prasad set on a course of what the Crown described as controlling behaviour where he sought to control the woman’s finances, who she associated with and isolated her from others.

He was also violent, and called her employer to say she had stolen items from her work, which the victim alleged was a lie.

In reading her statement to the court, the victim said Prasad, a Hindu priest in the Waikato, had “injured me in many ways”.

“He has hit me many times and I have been injured and had cuts to my body and in my mouth.

“He also used his fingers to press on my eyeballs and I ended up sore for two weeks and [suffering] blurry vision.

“It has been a lot for me ... I would be scared 24/7.

“I felt so isolated as my family and friends drifted away from me.

“He would call me and my female friends, lesbians.”

She told Judge Glen Marshall she would only feel safe if he left the country.

‘Be quiet someone might hear’

Prasad’s offending involved him accusing the woman of being involved in another relationship after she had finished working a night shift.

She told him to stop with the accusations and tried to rest.

However, Prasad pulled the blankets off her and slapped her so hard across the face that he loosened her nose ring.

He then tried to stop her screaming, “because someone might hear”, by putting his hand over her mouth.

Jainesh Prasad appeared in Hamilton District Court today for sentencing.

In an argument at another Hamilton house, in August 2023, Prasad ran at her, grabbing her head, and pressing his fingers into her eyeballs.

In October of that year, he demanded to see her phone to check who she had been talking with.

When she said “no”, he pushed her to the floor and held his hand around her throat as she struggled to breathe.

The protection order charge was laid after he called her employer claiming she had stolen items from work.

‘Relations were disintegrating and fraught’

In court, defence lawyer Katie Hogan said at the time of the offending relations between the pair were “disintegrating and fraught”.

A pre-sentence report found her client at low risk of reoffending and harm to others.

Prasad was also keen to attend restorative justice but the victim declined that.

Hogan submitted he had taken steps to rehabilitate, had not appeared before the court before, and had a job with Turners and Growers.

She argued convictions for Prasad would outweigh the gravity of his offending as an expert immigration adviser said if that happened he would likely be subjected to the deportation process.

“There’s a real and appreciable risk he will be deported,” she said, adding that the offending was not as serious as some other cases.

The Crown had also agreed to replace a more serious charge of strangulation with a lesser charge.

However, if the judge did not grant a discharge without conviction, Hogan urged him to hand down a sentence of community work and supervision.

Crown solicitor James Lewis said the victim lived in fear of Prasad while his assaults targeted her head and involved a breach of trust.

He submitted that deportation was “not a forgone conclusion”.

‘More concerned about the impact on him’

Judge Marshall first praised the victim for having the courage to read her victim impact statement to the court.

He also noted Prasad’s comment in the pre-sentence report, where he said he wasn’t happy finding out their relationship was over by somebody else.

“He found that distressing for a man of his standing,” the judge said.

Prasad explained one argument was caused by him getting upset that the woman hadn’t done the dishes before she went to work but he denied physically assaulting her.

The judge said his comments indicated a minimisation of his offending and the impact it had on the victim.

Judge Marshall accepted Prasad was a priest in the Waikato Hindu community and might face deportation if convicted, but ultimately found the offending “squarely in the moderate level” and declined his application for a discharge without conviction.

He then noted that Prasad’s remorse was “somewhat limited”.

“More limited to his view of the circumstances than what impact he has had on the victim’s life.”

Prasad was sentenced to 200 hours of community work and nine months of supervision.

He was also issued several conditions including not to contact the victim.

• Changes have been made to the original version of this story for accuracy.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.