Matthew Taitoko Waaka, 46, appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday and admitted the breach of his recent sentence.
The court heard Waaka had been given a chance by Judge Michael Crosbie when he was sentenced on May 2 after he described himself as a "man screaming out for help".
Despite his 24 previous convictions for violence, the judge believed a rehabilitative sentence would be more beneficial for Waaka than being locked up.
He sentenced him to seven months’ home detention.
"The greater good, I think, is to have you in a fulltime residential rehabilitation environment, where you can get some structured form of assistance," the judge said.
"Changing what are very much ingrained behaviours, stuff you regard instinctively as normal ... it’s going to take a long time to break those habits."
But just 11 days later, Waaka was exited from the Moana House programme for failing to comply with the rules, following threatening behaviour towards a staff member.
The sentence came after Waaka admitted assaulting a person in a family relationship and assaulting a female.
On November 24, Waaka, while wielding a spade, accused a person of stealing $30,000 of his property, but left their address after a brief verbal altercation.
The mother of the man followed him out and Waaka punched her in the face before throwing her phone over a fence.
Just weeks later, the defendant was at his ex-partner’s home arguing about her desire to return to the North Island.
Waaka punched her in the face and, when the woman threatened to call police, grabbed her and attempted to throw her over a balcony.
She was left with abrasions and bruises and the defendant told police she had been hitting herself.
Yesterday, Judge Michael Turner said after the home detention breach, imprisonment was the only option.
He sentenced Waaka to 15 months’ imprisonment which included one month for the breach of home detention.
