New date gatecrashes Christmas
After meeting online a few weeks earlier, a woman claims she did not expect the man to turn up at her mother’s house on Christmas Day.
And she certainly did not expect him to get drunk on their alcohol. But Jacob Wouter De Vries, 24, said he was invited.
A policy summary said the woman was not impressed with De Vries getting intoxicated at her family’s Christmas celebrations.
She gave him a lift into town when she and a friend went to look at Christmas lights, and left him at a pub drinking with a friend.
De Vries later tried to contact the woman but was unsuccessful.
He turned up at her house again, in an agitated state, and went inside. The woman told De Vries to leave, and he did.
He was walking down the road when he remembered he left his bag at the woman’s house, and went back to get it. But the house was locked up and the lights were out, and nobody answered his knocks on the door.
De Vries kicked the door in, and the woman came downstairs and told him to leave.
He pushed the woman into the wall, putting a hole in it, and pushed her backwards onto the stairs, the summary said.
She slapped De Vries across the face and threw his bag outside. De Vries left the house.
When spoken to by police, De Vries admitted breaking into the house, but denied assaulting the woman. He admitted wilful damage and assault at the Blenheim District Court on Monday. A charge of burglary was withdrawn by police.
His lawyer John Holdaway said De Vries believed he was invited to the woman’s house for Christmas celebrations.
Judge David Ruth convicted De Vries on the wilful damage charge and ordered him to pay reparation at $50 a week. He convicted and discharged De Vries without conviction on the assault charge.