Man blames violent attack on ‘seeing red’

A man who assaulted his partner and told her to ‘‘give me one reason why I shouldn’t put this knife in you’’ has been jailed for four years and nine months.

Just nine days before that assault, Agatupu Samu had threatened to murder a neighbour who has Down syndrome.

Samu attacked the mother of his 1-yearold son at a Napier house on the evening of August 29 last year.

Samu, 33, was drunk and had consumed synthetic cannabis.

The victim was asleep in the lounge of the house when Samu yelled at her from the kitchen and asked her to come to him.

When she went to Samu, she found him clutching a large kitchen knife.

‘‘Give me one reason why I shouldn’t put this knife in you,’’ Samu said to her, according to a police summary of facts.

Then he wielded the knife in a slicing motion, causing superficial cuts to the victim’s jaw and neck.

When a man who was staying at the address tried to intervene, Samu told him: ‘‘If you don’t back off, I’ll stab you up too.’’ The man backed off.

Samu then proceeded to punch the woman repeatedly in the face.

‘‘The punches were numerous and ongoing, and took the complainant to the brink of unconsciousness and made her fear for her life,’’ the summary said.

A short time later, Samu returned and began stomping on her head until she lost consciousness.

The victim’s next memory was of Samu strangling her in a bedroom of the house. She tried to fight him off but that made the strangulation worse and she eventually lost consciousness.

Over the next few days, Samu would not let her out of his sight. Only when he wanted her to go to Work and Income to inquire about a missed payment could she get away from him.

She went to police and reported the assault before being taken to hospital with multiple injuries to her head and neck, both eyes swollen shut and heavy bruising.

When police spoke to Samu, he said he couldn’t remember the incident as he had been so angry that day he had been ‘‘seeing red’’.

One week prior to the assault on his partner, Samu had threatened to murder a man with Down syndrome.

On the afternoon of August 20, Samu leaned out his second-floor apartment window and swore at the man who was downstairs hanging out his washing.

He then went down to the man, shouted and swore at him then slapped him in the face.

He said he was going to get his gun, load it, shoot him and ‘‘didn’t care about the consequence’’, the summary said.

Samu pleaded guilty to assault and threatening to kill the man, and six charges in relation to the attack on his partner including two of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

He was sentenced in Napier District Court yesterday.

Judge Geoff Rea gave Samu a discount for a medical condition he had but noted the more serious offending had occurred after he had consumed large amounts of alcohol and synthetic cannabis.

He also gave him a discount for his guilty pleas, which meant two very vulnerable people would not have to give evidence at trial.

‘‘Give me one reason why I shouldn’t put this knife in you.’’

Agatupu Samu to his victim before he stabbed her