Justice Rob Osborne commended the victim's son, and the woman's adult cousin, who both intervened in a frenzied attack by Manu Hausia wielding a knife and scissors. He jailed Hausia for six years and six months.
"They acted in the face of a horrific attack without regard for their own safety," said the judge. The 11-year-old had intervened - protecting his mother and calling the police - in attacks in both June and September 2021.
Hausia sat downcast in the dock while the judge's description of the attacks was translated into Tongan for him.
Justice Rob Osborne detailed one woman's injuries: Nine stab wounds to her back, three to her face including one that went right through her cheek, and one narrowly missing her left eye; two stab wounds to the back of her head, and another to her shoulder; two cuts on her hand; bruising to her lower face, jaw, and neck consistent with strangulation; significant blood loss; and damage to her salivary glands which hindered her ability to swallow, talk, and eat.
The woman told the court her children had been greatly affected by witnessing the attack on their mother.
Hausia (28) pleaded guilty in the High Court at Christchurch in December to four charges: attempted murder, injuring and wounding with intent, and assaulting a child. He is a Tongan national who is currently in New Zealand on an interim visitor visa.
Crown prosecutor Shawn McManus called for a 10-year term for the attempted murder charge, because of serious injuries, the attack to the head, the use of lethal weapons, the significant number of stab wounds, and the fact that it was witnessed by the victim's child. She called for an overall starting point of 11 years six months.
Defence counsel Jeff McCall said Hausia was ashamed of his actions. He had been meant to stay in New Zealand for two or three months, but after the borders closed he found himself in isolating circumstances in Oamaru. Alcohol was not an excuse, but it provided a context for the offending.
The first victim was a solo mum with five children who met Hausia at a rugby game in Auckland at the start of 2021, and they then began living together in Oamaru.
Hausia confronted her one night when she returned from church and demanded to see her phone. After he checked her phone, he assaulted her when she was lying on her bed after a shower, bashing her unconscious.
The woman's 1-year-old son was 2m from the bed and started crying, distracting Hausia from the assault. When the woman regained consciousness she crawled to the bedroom of her 11-year-old son where she blacked out again. Hausia followed her there, but the boy tried the stop the assault on his mother and phoned the police. Hausia fled and was found in Ashburton.
The victim was admitted to Oamaru Hospital, with severe swelling to her face, upper body, arms, bleeding from her ears, and concussion. Hausia admitted punching her several times over a "misunderstanding".
On June 19, 2021, he was charged with intentionally injuring her and released to an Ashburton address on strict bail conditions including not to contact the woman or travel south of the Waitaki River. At the beginning of August, he returned to Oamaru to live with the victim and her children, in breach of his bail.
About 3.50am on September 2, after a long drinking session, he became argumentative with the first victim. She called 111 and asked him to leave, but as she was speaking to the police he put her in a stranglehold and stabbed her in the head and body with a kitchen knife and scissors.
He told her that it would be the last time anyone would ever see her and that he would be the last person on Earth that she would ever see. She fought back and "began screaming in terror" while he repeatedly stabbed her in the back, arms, face, head, shoulders, and upper body.
Her screams woke up her cousin who happened to be staying the night – as well as two children who got up and saw Hausia repeatedly stabbing their mother while she screamed for help, covered in blood.
As the cousin tried to push him away, Hausia turned and lunged at her with either the knife or scissors, stabbing her in the leg and slashing a cut across her face. When the 11-year-old child also tried to stop the attack, Hausia punched him in the face.
The cousin grabbed both children and pulled them into a hallway and shut the door. Hausia stopped his attack and fled, dropping the blood-drenched knife on the lawn.
Both women were taken to hospital for surgery, and Hausia handed himself in to the police about seven hours later.
The prosecutor at that session said it was only "sheer luck" that none of the main victim's injuries were life-threatening, missing vital organs by millimetres.
The second victim suffered deep stab wounds to her thigh and a slash wound to her cheek.
Justice Osborne said it was "particularly grave offending" by Hausia, imposing a six-year six-month term.
He allowed reductions in the sentence for factors including Hausia's guilty pleas, his difficulties in serving a jail term in New Zealand, and his previous good character.
He also noted that Hausia would likely be deported at the end of the jail sentence.
- By David Clarkson, Open Justice multimedia journalist, Christchurch
