Student couple guilty of housemate assault

A UNIVERSITY student feared and resented her housemate when she threatened him with a knife, a court has heard.

Xin Wang, 27, was found guilty of assaulting Liang Chen by threatening him with a knife on July 15 last year at their Blackmans Bay home. Her boyfriend, Xinyi Li, 25, who also lived at the house, was found guilty of two counts of assaulting Mr Chen by punching him, on the same morning. Justice Michael Brett sentenced the couple on Tuesday after a Supreme Court jury in Hobart spent more than seven hours deliberating.

Justice Brett said there had been a deteriorating relationship between Wang and Li on one hand and Mr Chen on the other, in the lead-up to the assault.

He said Mr Chen had posted a message “which started this whole incident”.

During the trial, the jury heard Mr Chen posted a complaint on social media platform WeChat about returning home to a noisy house. “I consider that the message did contain deliberately abusive and insulting language,” Justice Brett said.

He said Li woke up hearing an argument between Mr Chen and Wang on July 15, came out of his room and saw what he thought was a physical exchange between Mr Chen and Wang.

Justice Brett said Li’s initial reaction was to defend Wang, but by punching Mr Chen to the back of the head he used excessive force. He said Li continued to punch Mr Chen, again using force that was not justified.

“It clearly caused some injury to Mr Chen. I think it did cause some temporary blurring of vision, and some temporary injury to his face and eye,” Justice Brett said.

“I am not satisfied that the impact on Mr Chen is as serious as described in his victim impact statement.”

Justice Brett said Wang picked up a knife, went to Mr Chen’s room and threatened him with it. “The use of a weapon in any dispute is a serious matter, and in the circumstances in that house on that morning, it was a serious matter,” he said.

But he said he took into account that Wang did not actually use the knife and Mr Chen was not physically harmed by what she did.

Justice Brett said Wang and Li, both originally from China, were of otherwise impeccable character and a conviction would have an impact on their immigration status.

He fined Li $1000 and fined Wang $400 but did not record convictions.