A Dunedin man who was jailed for strangling his partner in an angry attack has had his sentence reduced to home detention on appeal.
In April, Dean John Middlemass, 44, was sentenced to two years three months’ imprisonment after admitting to assaulting a female and later being found guilty by a jury of strangulation.
But this month the Court of Appeal reduced that sentence to six months’ home detention after ruling the original sentence was ‘‘manifestly excessive’’.
The charges stemmed from events on November 6, 2022, when, during an argument, the defendant pulled his partner off a bed and then kicked her and slapped her face.
He then put his head against hers and said ‘‘die c . . . ’’ before grabbing her by the throat with two hands and strangling her with her back against a wall.
The victim recalled feeling like her feet were lifting off the ground and that her eyes would pop out of her head.
Middlemass stopped strangling her when her body started to go limp.
The Court of Appeal considered the ‘‘significant and lasting’’ impact the offending had on the victim.
But the panel of appeal judges thought that in sentencing the defendant, Judge David Robinson assessed the offending as being more serious than it was.
‘‘While no doubt this was a very frightening experience for the victim, it appears to have arisen from a spontaneous loss of self-control during a heated argument at the end of a relationship,’’ the appeal decision said.
‘‘The period of strangulation was relatively brief and we do not discern any accompanying coercive or controlling behaviours, which are often the hallmark of more serious cases.’’
They also emphasised the defendant had no previous convictions, his daughter was in his care and he ran a business.
At sentencing, Judge Robinson said he did not believe home detention would be an appropriate sentence for Middlemass.
The Court of Appeal disagreed and said it could not overlook the defendant’s engagement in rehabilitation, as he had completed more than 70 Stopping Violence sessions and mentored others on the course.
After the seven weeks Middlemass spent in custody before trial and after sentencing were taken into account, the end home-detention sentence was reached.
