A 29-year-old man was sentenced to two-years six-months imprisonment for serious causing bodily harm to his wife in a brutal attack using three weapons, on Tongatapu in 2022. 

Hon. Justice P. Tupou KC sentenced him on 28 April at the Supreme Court in Nuku’alofa. He had pleaded guilty to two counts of causing serious bodily harm and one count of common assault.

The judge said the offending occured on 2 November 2022 when the defendant saw a post on Facebook on 'Fanguna Online Reincarnation' alleging the complainant was having an affair with another man. When they arrived at their home, the defendant pushed the complainant into the house saying he had something to ask her, and he would beat her up.

The complainant asked what was going on and was shown a screen shot of the Facebook post. The complainant denied the allegation was true as the, defendant grabbed an aluminium shear (described in the Tongan version as an iron cutter) and stabbed the complainant's lower back region.

When the complainant pushed him back, the defendant grabbed a screw driver and stabbed the complainant's right hand with it. She jumped at him causing him to drop the screwdriver. He grabbed a crow bar and hit her back with it, and they wrestled for a while.

On the next day, when he left for work, the complainant fled to an election polling station from where the police officers present took her to the hospital, said the judge.

At the hospital, the doctor confirmed that the complainant sustained a deep wound with a 4-6cm laceration on the left knee, bruises on her left forearm, bruises on her back and a punctured wound on the right palm of her hand from the defendant's attacks.

She lodged a complaint and in November, 2022, the police seized an axe, crow bar, iron cutter and screw driver from the defendant and complainant's home.

The defendant admitted the offending when he was interviewed on the same day. He also held three previous convictions for common assault in 2011 and 2017.

The Crown submitted aggravating factors against the defendant included his previous convictions for violent offences, the offending was premeditated; it was a continual sustained attack using three different weapons and that he detained the complainant against her will, among others.

Mitigating factors in his faviour included that complainant having fully recovered, his remorse and early guilty plea and cooperation with police. The two are also still married and live together.

The pre-sentencing report recommended a full suspension, which the judge rejected, She accepted the Crown's submission for only a portion of his sentence be suspended for his youth,and cooperation with the police. 

Cruel

"Returning to the instant case, it has to be in the worst category of cases involving domestic violence that has come before this court. The defendant's use of an iron cutter, screw driver, crow bar and an axe to inflict injury on the wife who has borne him two children and then proceeding to detain her in the house against her will, and refusing her request to have her injuries treated, is in my view, the essence of callousness and cruelty."

“In addition, the principles of deterrence to men or women who intend to exert violence on their partners, denunciation of such behaviour, the protection of women and vulnerable persons and providing a safer environment for them is the paramount consideration in these cases,” said the judge.

The defendant was then sentenced to two-years and six-months imprisonment, with the final 12-months suspended for two-years on conditions.