Fight during dinner ends with detention

A man who violently assaulted his partner during dinner was stabbed in the leg with a steak knife in return, a court has heard.

Damien Terangi Joseph got upset when his victim, with whom he had been in a relationship for 14 years, interrupted their meal to get a steak knife from the kitchen.

At yesterday’s sentencing, Judge David Cameron told the New Plymouth District Court the defendant and the woman had argued before Joseph jabbed his own knife in the direction of the victim’s face. On one occasion the tip of the knife nicked the woman’s upper lip.

Judge Cameron said the victim then used her steak knife to stab Joseph in his upper leg. Joseph then punched the woman two or three times in the head.

The pair went on to wrestle over car keys before Joseph put the woman into a headlock and pinned her to the ground. She managed to break free and went to the bedroom but the defendant followed, grabbed the woman by the throat with two hands and squeezed hard before unleashing two more punches to her head.

He stopped the assault and left the house when the victim told him she was going to call the police, the judge said.

The woman suffered soreness and numbness to her head and left ear but did not need medical treatment.

Joseph previously pleaded guilty to charges of male assaults female and assault with intent to injure.

Judge Cameron said at 36 Joseph had a history of offending, the bulk of which related to dishonesty. He said the defendant had been assessed as having a high risk of reoffending and the pre-sentence report highlighted Joseph’s main associates were gang members and that he was a regular user of methamphetamine. After giving Joseph credit for his guilty pleas and for the two months he spent in custody, ahead of yesterday’s court hearing, the judge sentenced him to six months’ home detention.