Jailed and released on same day
A man was jailed for inflicting a ‘‘severe beating’’ on a vulnerable woman but walked free from prison the same day.
Yesterday, Michael Toihau Parnell received an 18 month prison sentence after pleading guilty to a charge of injuring with intent to injure, committed on December 18, 2016.
As he had been on custodial remand for the past 16 months, he was released immediately due to having already served his time.
Parnell pleaded guilty to the serious assault, committed in a cabin at a New Plymouth holiday park, on Monday which was the beginning of his trial on three other charges.
On Thursday, he was acquitted of two counts of rape and one of assault with a weapon after a jury of eight women and four men found him not guilty.
At the sentencing hearing for the assault, prosecutor Justin Marinovich submitted Parnell’s attack on the woman was ‘‘prolonged’’ as she was essentially trapped in the small room with the defendant standing over her, delivering multiple blows to her body.
The woman was struck around the head, arms and back, leaving significant bruising. The court heard that while the victim did not need medical treatment, the assault had impacted on her emotionally,
From a starting point of 18 to 24 months jail, Marinovich said a further six months was warranted for Parnell’s previous offending, as it indicated his repeat use of violence against women. Included in Parnell’s rap sheet was a two year jail sentence for two representative charges of wounding with intent to injure for offences committed between September 2006 and April 2011 and assault. The victim was his former partner.
Parnell’s lawyer Patrick Mooney argued for a starting point of 18 months and accepted the aggravating factors in the offending were the attacks to the head and the vulnerability of the victim.
‘‘It is nasty, there is no denying that,’’ Mooney said of the assault.
Judge Stephen Harrop said as a prison sentence was inevitable for the offending, Parnell waived his right to a pre-sentence report.
He said the victim received a ‘‘severe beating’’ from Parnell and had feared for her life.
‘‘The photographs are graphic. The level of bruising speaks to the level of force and intent behind your punching,’’ the judge told Parnell.
Information before the court about Parnell suggested he had difficulty understanding how his violence impacted on his victims and that his anger was ‘‘unpredictable’’.
Judge Harrop said Parnell’s guilty plea was the only mitigating factor in the case and granted him the full 25 per cent available.
Although the guilty plea was only formally entered on Monday, Parnell had accepted he had physically assaulted the victim when he was interviewed by police in December 2016, the judge explained.
Now back in the community, Parnell will be subject to release conditions, including that he attend any counselling as directed by a probation officer. As part of his sentence, the defendant also had $1356 in outstanding fines remitted.