Drunk man shames wife

A MAN who degraded his partner and attacked police with a petrol can has been given name suppression to spare his wife.

The 65yearold appeared before the Dunedin District Court yesterday having admitted a charge of assaulting police, two of assaulting police with a weapon, resisting police and contravening a protection order.

Judge Kevin Phillips detailed the unusual set of facts that led the man’s arrest.

On December 19, the defendant came home drunk and ‘‘objected to the way the victim was preparing his food’’.

He poured a drink over her head and rubbed some ‘‘ointment’’ into her hair, a summary of facts said.

The man left the house for his workshop where he police found him drinking.

Counsel Andy Belcher said it was his client who had called police and labelled it ‘‘a cry for help’’.

But when officers tried to engage with the man, he was not interested in their assistance.

First, he launched a beer bottle at them, which smashed at their feet, and then he picked up a large petrol can containing fuel, ‘‘lifting it above his head and hurled it at police, landing about a metre away, causing fuel to spill out on to the floor’’.

Still aggressive, the defendant charged them while holding another large petrol container.

Officers forced him to the ground.

Because of his constant struggling, the man’s hands and feet had to be secured before he was arrested, the court heard.

Mr Belcher said his client was suffering from work stress at the time and since the incident, had abstained from alcohol.

The judge said the couple had been together for more than 40 years and the defendant’s alcoholism had surfaced periodically at times of emotional tension.

He referred to comments from the victim, which outlined the humiliation she had felt during and since the night in question.

‘‘You treated her appallingly,’’ the judge said.

‘‘When you poured alcohol over her head, she felt like you hated her.

‘‘She then had to get down after all the violence . . . and clean the wall of the bourbon and alcohol you’d thrown around.’’

There was an unfortunate lasting reminder of the flashpoint too, she said.

‘‘The roof [damage] has remained and every time she sees the ceiling area she remembers that night and how you degraded her,’’ Judge Phillips said.

The woman had been so embarrassed by what happened she had not told her family — and she wanted to keep it that way.

She requested name suppression, but the judge said for that order to be meaningful he would have to suppress the defendant’s name as well.

He said naming him would only shame the woman further, which she did not deserve.

The 65yearold was sentenced to nine months’ supervision and 180 hours’ community work.