Man smashed sauce container over wife’s head

An Outram man who smashed a container of tomato sauce on his partner’s head told her she was lucky the condiment which covered her was not blood, a court has head.

Paul Edward Kelly (52) pleaded guilty to breaching a protection order and assaulting his wife soon after the June 16 incident.

The couple’s seven-year relationship had been peppered with the man’s offending, Judge Michael Turner said.

In 2013, Kelly was convicted of a domestic assault and three years later he breached a protection order the court had granted in favour of the woman.

The most recent flashpoint took place when the pair were at home in the lounge watching television and chatting.

Things deteriorated when the conversation moved on to the victim’s suspicions that Kelly had sent inappropriate text messages to her sister.

He became "agitated and defensive", a police summary of facts said.

When the victim left the room for the kitchen,  Kelly followed and struck her on the head with a plastic tomato-sauce container.

"The tomato sauce sprayed her over the head, face and clothes, at which time he told her that she was lucky it wasn’t her blood," police said.

The victim told her partner she was going to call police and left the address in search of cellphone reception.

Kelly pushed her in the back as she did so.

When the woman began yelling for help, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back inside, where she stumbled into a bookshelf.

Kelly then left the home.He later told police he had not hit her with the bottle but accepted he squeezed sauce on her head.

Defence counsel David McCaskill called it a "knee-jerk reaction".

The couple had attended a restorative justice conference and the defendant had apologised and agreed to attend counselling.

A pre-sentence report assessed Kelly as at a low risk of reoffending, which bewildered Judge Turner.

"I would’ve thought it was high, given any appearances before the court relate to domestic violence matters against your wife," he said.

Kelly was sentenced to 80 hours’ community work.

rob.kidd@odt.co.nz

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