Jail time for knife-wielder

A man has been sentenced to four months in jail for possessing a knife he used to threaten his former partner.

Nathan Schouten pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon.

The police summary of facts said in June last year, Schouten and his partner were at home when Schouten approached her in the kitchen and began abusing her.

He took a 30cm knife and passed it from hand to hand. Schouten told his partner ‘‘It’s just you and me here, no one else, no cameras’’.

In the Nelson District Court on Friday, Judge David Ruth said Schouten’s partner felt threatened and was ‘‘terrified’’.

When she tried to leave the kitchen, Schouten blocked her path and then hugged her. ‘‘You hugged her in a forcible, bear-hug style, still holding the knife,’’ Ruth said.

Eventually she ran into a different room, with Schouten following her with the knife, before she hid in a cupboard and called the police.

When the police arrived, Schouten answered the door and said both he and his partner had been drinking and had argued. His partner ran past him to the police.

Crown prosecutor Sefton Revell proposed a 12 month starting point for the sentence, due to the aggravating feature of the domestic setting and the actions Schouten’s partner had to take to escape him.

Schouten’s lawyer, Emma Riddell, said that Schouten’s actions were linked to drug-use, which had also played a part in some other offences which took place from March to May of the same year, which Schouten was already sentenced for.

‘‘At this time he was operating under the influence of methamphetamine psychosis. He accepts that that’s not an excuse, but it does explain the spree of offending.’’

She said that though the implicit threat of violence was bad, the fact that Schouten’s victim was not injured. ‘‘The actual violence was low-level.’’