Woman, daughter cowered in bathroom during New Years attack

File photo / NZ Herald

A woman and her 10-year-old daughter cowered in the bathroom of their Wesport home on New Year's Eve as the woman's estranged boyfriend smashed his way into the house and moved from room to room searching for her, the Greymouth District Court heard yesterday.

David Brian Innes, 48, was remanded in custody for sentencing on March 14 after he admitted breaking into a property with intent to commit a crime.

Judge Paul Kellar said bail could not be considered because he could not be satisfied that Innes would not commit an act of serious violence if he was in the community and a prison sentence was inevitable.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Mark Harris told the court Innes and the woman had been in an off-and-on relationship for two years.

At 8.30pm on December 30 he phoned and asked whether he could come around. Realising he was drunk and unwelcome at the house in that condition the woman refused, but about 9.40pm she saw Innes's car coming up the drive.

After locking the doors, the woman and her daughter hid in the bathroom while Innes knocked on the windows saying "come on babe, let me in. I have a crowbar in the car that will take care of the door".

Innes kept rapping on a bedroom window until it smashed and then went round to the front door, gaining entry by punching a hole in a sheet of plywood.

He then went from room to room looking for the woman, saying: "I know I have f***** up but I'm going to f*** up some more," before smashing items, including a computer in the lounge.

Innes then left, and the woman called the police.