Man sentenced for family assault

A man sentenced for assault has been warned to change his behaviour by a New Plymouth judge.

Joshua Travis Cornwall, 27, appeared in New Plymouth District Court to have the remainder of a previous jail sentence converted to home detention and for sentencing on two further charges of assaulting a person in a family relationship.

At about 3pm on Sunday, March 8, Cornwall entered a sleep-out at a Waitara address occupied by his sister and her partner, according to a police summary of facts.

He stood over the couple in bed and said: ‘‘standover tactics!’’

He grabbed his sister’s phone and snapped it in half while laughing at her.

Cornwall punched his sister twice in the head with a closed fist while holding her by the shirt. Her partner stood up to confront Cornwall and punched him in his upper torso to try to make him let go of his sister.

But Cornwall grabbed the partner by the neck and placed him in a choke hold. Cornwall fell to the ground, followed by the victim, and Cornwall punched him repeatedly in the face with a closed fist.

The victim’s face began to turn purple as he struggled to breathe, the summary said.

Cornwall’s sister managed to separate the pair and Cornwall left.

His sister was left with a sore temple and bleeding from her ear, and her partner received two black eyes, a headache and now has breathing difficulties from being punched in the nose.

In court on Tuesday, Judge Tony Greig sentenced Cornwall to five months’ jail, converted to two-and-a-half months’ home detention, on top of his existing sentence.

He reiterated a previous warning to Cornwall, whose violent offending history was acknowledged in court, that he would seriously injure or kill someone one day.

‘‘It’s only the slip of a knife that makes the difference between a 14-month sentence and a life sentence.’’

He was also ordered to pay $300 reparation for the cellphone.