A man has been jailed for 10 months for punching his heavily pregnant partner in the face.
The incident took place on August 14 when James Henare Makoare (35) was living with the 18-year-old woman in Napier.
He had since moved south to look for work, the Dunedin District Court heard yesterday.
Makoare had been drinking in the kitchen of their house and later admitted he was "heavily intoxicated".
The defendant began a verbal attack on the victim, accusing her of cheating on him with an ex-boyfriend.Tired of his vitriol, she went to bed.
But Makoare followed her and continued the abuse.
"Fearing for her safety, the victim got up to move away from the defendant," the police summary said.
"At this stage the defendant punched the victim in the face, which made her fall to the ground."
Defence counsel Brendan Stephenson said it was not the most serious assault of its kind and his client should be sentenced to community work and intensive supervision.
But Judge Kevin Phillips had a different take.
"Attacking the head of a pregnant woman? Knocking her to the ground?" he said.
"It’s a classic example of domestic violence, totally vulnerable victim, seven or eight months’ pregnant, totally trusting."
The woman had been left with a bruised right eye and her trust in the defendant was left in tatters.
"I don’t want to be in a relationship any more," she wrote in a statement before the court.
"I can’t believe he did this."
Mr Stephenson said Makoare had moved away from bad influences in Napier and had been clean of drugs for 10 weeks.
He was motivated to address his alcohol-abuse issues too, he said.
"He wants to fix up his life and wants to be able to support his child living with his ex-partner in Napier," Mr Stephenson said.
Looking at Makoare’s criminal history, Judge Phillips noted a wide variety of violence — assaults on women, children, men and police.
The defendant also had multiple convictions for breaching community-based sentences.
Probation rated him as being at a medium to high risk of reoffending, the court heard.
Imprisonment was the only option, the judge said.He calculated a prison term of nine months and added a month to take into account the remission of Makoare’s $6206 in fines.
