Tyrone John Te-Puke Wairepo, 47, appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after earlier pleading guilty to four charges of assaulting a female, strangulation, indecent assault and threatening to kill.
The court heard that in April, 2022, the victim went to Roxburgh with the defendant believing there was fruit picking available, but the season had ended.
She stayed there with Wairepo in a house he was renting and on May 7, 2022, the pair were drinking there.
Wairepo went into the victim’s room and verbally abused her before punching her multiple times in the face and pulling her hair.
She cried and asked the defendant what she had done.
While the victim was lying down, Wairepo squeezed his hands around her throat and continued yelling at her.
He went into the lounge, but later when the woman got up to go to the bathroom he yelled at her again.
"You’re f...... crazy, woman" Wairepo said.
He then groped her and told her to "f... up and keep still".
When she went to the bathroom Wairepo followed her and punched her in the head.
She called him a "creep" and pushed him away.
Wairepo responded by delivering multiple blows to the woman’s head and shoulders, then pulled her hair and called her a "f...... b...." and a "whore".
He punched her in the head again and pushed her as she walked down the hallway.
She went to her room and tried to sleep but Wairepo demanded that she come out and drink with him.
She sat on the balcony and had a drink before the defendant punched her in the face twice.
While she was on the ground, Wairepo grabbed her by the hair and smashed her head into the balcony.
Later, the victim was trying to sleep in her room when the defendant entered and held a long serrated kitchen knife a few centimetres from her throat and began screaming at her.
"I’ll f...... kill you b....," he said.
The next day, Wairepo dropped the victim in Alexandra and she was later medically examined
Her injuries included a fractured nose, bruising and swelling to her cheekbone, swelling in her neck and tenderness above her shoulder blade.
Yesterday, counsel Tony Bamford said his client had applied to go to residential rehabilitation.
He highlighted Wairepo had lived an offence-free life for about eight years and held down a job.
Judge David Robinson acknowledged the gap in the defendant’s criminal record, but said he did have a history of violent behaviour.
"What you did, in my view, would’ve left [the victim] utterly terrified and left an ongoing psychological impact," the judge said.
"This certainly does impress as sustained violence by you against an isolated and vulnerable woman."
The judge said the strangulation was coercive behaviour which let her know her life was in the defendant’s hands.
The court heard that at first, Wairepo did not take responsibility for his offending, but had started to show some remorse.
Judge Robinson sentenced Wairepo to 32 months’ imprisonment.
— Felicity Dear, Court reporter
