Footballer assaults, films girlfriend
A former New Zealand age group football representative subjected his girlfriend to a half hour of torment during a prolonged assault, which she only escaped by jumping out a window and sprinting to her car.
Jamie Guscot Woodlock, 21, was sentenced to 10 weeks of home detention when he appeared in the Hamilton District Court on Monday, after earlier pleading guilty to a representative charge of male assaults female.
The Cambridge man – who is described on court documents as a landscape gardener – is a former member of the New Zealand Under-17 team who has also played for the Cambridge and Hamilton Wanderers clubs.
He and his victim had been in a brief relationship when he attacked her on the night of October 6 last year. As the agreed summary of facts on Woodlock’s case reveals, his girlfriend had gone to his house in Cambridge shortly before midnight that night. He was out, and she went to sleep in his bed.
Woodlock arrived home about 1am. He was drunk. After about half an hour his girlfriend decided she didn’t want to be in his company and made preparations to go home. Woodlock didn’t let her.
As she was walking to the front door he ran and locked it, before grabbing her tightly by her arms and telling her she was not leaving.
She tried to open the door again, but he grabbed her and pushed her backwards using his full force three times, causing her to stumble backwards.
Woodlock had a set of keys and he pressed the point of one of those keys into her chest, causing her pain. Fearing for her safety, she agreed to go to back to bed, and they returned to his bedroom. He locked the bedroom door behind them.
The woman tried to leave again after a few minutes when she thought he might be asleep. He wasn’t.
Woodlock grabbed his victim by the waist and pulled her back onto the bed, overpowering her so she was unable to move. She tried again and then again to make a run for it, but each time he grabbed her and after a struggle overpowered her.
As she sat crying on the floor he grabbed and pulled off her T-shirt, leaving the top half of her body exposed. Woodlock told the woman that if she went to the police he would make her out to be the crazy one. Then he took out his cellphone and recorded her while saying things like ‘‘Look at what she has done, she has messed up my room’’.
He pushed her onto the floor using his chest, while still recording her. She ran to the window, but he grabbed her. She tried to run out the door again, again without success. Then she made another run for the window. This time she made it out, but he grabbed her dress and held on.
Woodlock let her go and made a run for the front door in a bid to intercept the woman before she could escape. She sprinted to her car, parked in the front driveway, and managed to get in and lock the doors just before he could reach her. Then she took off. Woodlock’s victim was in court for his sentencing and stared him down as she gave a statement about how his assault had affected her. She was troubled with ongoing memories of the assault which had also disrupted her life in other ways.
Crown prosecutor Bernadette Vaili sought a sentence of 15 to 18 months in prison. Woodlock’s counsel Melissa James asked for a community-based sentence. Her client had no previous convictions and had good prospects for rehabilitation.
Judge Kim Saunders said she was dismayed by a Probations Service report that recommended Woodlock be sentenced to supervision for his misdeeds.
‘‘That is wholly inadequate,’’ she said.
‘‘You heard the brave young woman stand up and tell you the consequences,’’ she told Woodlock. ‘‘You must never forget those consequences. You did all you could to harm and degrade her.’’
Judge Saunders also granted the victim’s request for a protection order against Woodlock.
Woodlock played for the New Zealand Under-17 team in 2015, and he has also taken to the field for the U19 Go Ahead Eagles Club side in the Veredivise League in the Netherlands.