Woman knifed in face, then taunted by stabber

A man slashed his ex-partner’s face, then sent her text messages hours later saying: ‘‘I love your new face’’.

Iosefa Bob Coe, 41, appeared in the High Court in Auckland yesterday where he was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment for a range of offences, including grievous bodily harm and kidnapping. The charges related to two separate events where Coe inflicted violence on his former partner. The pair had been in a relationship since 2014 but, after the birth of their son in 2015, the relationship deteriorated, the court heard.

In February 2017, Coe arranged to have dinner with the woman and discuss money he owed to her.

He picked her up from her house, and began to drive erratically, the court heard.

The woman asked Coe to stop but he continued.

At one point, he began to punch the woman while speeding down the southern motorway.

The woman escaped uninjured from the moving car at a corner.

A month later, while on bail for the previous attack, Coe asked if he could stay at the woman’s house because he had no money.

The woman agreed but the following morning told him to leave, the court heard.

Coe then decided to attack the woman, Crown prosecutor Sacha Norrie said.

‘‘Mr Coe went into the kitchen, retrieved a knife and attacked the victim as she was lying in her bed,’’ Norrie said. ‘‘That attack primarily targeted her face and head.

‘‘It caused multiple serious stab and slash wounds to both her face and her head.

‘‘Mr Coe only stopped the attack when the blade of the knife broke.’’

He exited through the bedroom window.

Coe sent text messages to the injured woman which included ‘‘I love your new face’’, and ‘‘He-he-he new life, new face’’.

In arguing for preventive detention, the Crown urged Justice Christine Gordon to look at his ‘‘continuous pattern’’ of violence.

In 2003, Coe was convicted of unlawful sexual connection. In 2007, he stabbed a young man in the throat, after earlier cutting the youth’s wrist with broken glass, severing three tendons. The young man only just survived.

While in prison in 2012, Coe was convicted for assaulting a prison officer.

Coe had undergone treatment programmes in prison but they failed to stop his patterns of violence, Norrie said.

Coe’s lawyer, Panama Le’au’anae, said his client had a ‘‘problem with anger and alcohol’’ but preventive detention was not needed.

Whatever the sentence, Coe had a large amount of work to do in prison if he wanted to be released, Le’au’anae said.

By a ‘‘fine margin’’, Coe would not be sentenced to preventive detention, Justice Christine Gordon said.

He would need to serve at least two-thirds of his sentence before he could be considered for parole.

‘‘I love your new face. He-he-he new life, new face.’’

Messages from woman’s assailant