A woman has described feeling helpless, insecure and unsafe every day since she was assaulted and strangled by defendant Caine Punakai.

The attack occurred in Te Kaha last October.

In the Whakatāne District Court on Wednesday, Punakai disputed the extent of the assault, pleaded not guilty to charges of strangulation and assault with intent to injure, and went to judge-alone trial last month.

Judge Paul Geoghegan found him guilty of both charges and sentenced him to prison this week.

The judge said Punakai and the victim were having a disagreement about her returning him to Huntly when he delivered a “running knee” to her head as she sat on the bed.

The victim fell back on the bed and covered herself as Punakai began to punch her repeatedly with closed fists. She estimated she was punched 20 times.

She managed to get out of the cabin and into her car. Punakai followed, reached through the open window to turn the car off and continued punching her through the window.

Judge Geoghegan said Punakai grabbed the victim around the neck in attempts to get her out of the car.

The victim had recently had a thyroid operation and said Punakai’s actions restricted her breathing. As a result she felt dizzy for two to three minutes.

Punakai accepts only that he slapped the victim and grabbed her arm.

A victim impact statement read aloud by the court victim support adviser described the victim still suffering with neck and shoulder pain, as well as migraines.

She said she was left homeless with a dog, practically living in her car.

The victim said she lived in seclusion since the assault, with no social life except for those treating her in rehabilitation.

The rehab lasted about a year, but the victim said she still felt as if she needed more, having returned to only about 60 percent physical health and 50 percent mental health.

She suffered from regular memory issues, which frustrated her, she said.

Judge Geoghegan said Punakai had six previous convictions for violence and though he was willing to attend restorative justice, the judge said the defendant’s continued denial of the charges meant there could be no discount for remorse.

He referred to Punakai having a difficult and unstable childhood.

Punakai was sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ prison.

A small discount for personal factors was offset by an equal uplift for his previous convictions.

Crossbow assault admitted

Coastlands man Redmond Huirua, 34, has admitted wounding a man by shooting him at close range with a crossbow.

Huirua pleaded guilty to the charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm via audio-visual link from prison this week.

He was remanded to May 6 for sentencing before Judge Melinda Mason.

Burglary charge to be tried

Davina Tibble is headed to a jury trial as she maintains her not guilty plea to a charge of burglary.

The charge was amended by police to include a co-defendant, who has already elected trial by jury. Tibble’s case must follow suit.

She was remanded to March 25 for a jury callover hearing at Tauranga District Court.

Tibble has previously admitted driving while disqualified but is yet to be sentenced.

Defendant to learn “no”

Tamati Chamberlain says he is still learning to say “no” after pleading guilty to his third driving while disqualified charge this year.

Lawyer Alexandra Dawick said the latest offence occurred because the defendant was asked to drive someone to court.

Judge Geoghegan said that while it was honest, that was “the dumbest excuse ever”.

Chamberlain was remanded to February 18 for sentencing.

Gang shirt worn to KFC

Joshua Peri-Ruha has lost his gang T-shirt after he was caught wearing it into KFC at Te Puke.

He was convicted and discharged without penalty. A destruction order was made for the shirt.

Peri-Ruha is yet to plead to a separate charge of burglary, for which he was remanded to the new year.

Drunk driver admits charge

Tereneti Kopura’s intoxicated driving was discovered after he swerved his Toyota Starlet across two lanes in Rotorua.

He was disqualified from driving at the time and had a breath alcohol level of 817 micrograms. The legal limit is 250 micrograms.

Kopura pleaded guilty to two charges arising from the incident on August 17.

A pre-sentence report recommended a sentence of supervision and community work, but noted the defendant had an injury that could impact his ability to do the latter.

Judge Geoghegan said he would not impose a sentence that the defendant was unsuitable for.

Kopura was sentenced to six months’ community detention, 12 months’ supervision and was disqualified from driving for 28 days.

After that point he can apply for an alcohol interlock licence.

Remand on new charges

Kawerau man Zane Graham was denied bail after he was arrested on an alleged breach.

Graham, 37, was remanded without plea on new charges of assault on a person in a family relationship and speaks threateningly.

He had been on bail pending sentencing for charges of strangulation and common assault.

He is next due in court on January 14.

Tears after sentence converted

Emotions were high for Whakatāne man Troy Green upon hearing his prison sentence would be converted to home detention.

Green was jailed for 18 months on October 22 for five breaches of protection orders. The breaches related to two women.

He appeared by AVL from prison this week applying for the prison term to be substituted for one of home detention.

Green recognised Judge Geoghegan from nearly two decades ago and provided an update on how his family had grown since their last court encounter.

Green gave the judge a run down on his love life and said he was done with dating.

Judge Geoghegan substituted Green’s remaining prison sentence with 7.5 months’ home detention.

Pistol possession admitted

Keelin Ruru pleaded guilty this week to a Crown charge of unlawfully possessing a firearm.

The court heard it was a loaded pistol.

Ruru was remanded in custody to February 11 for sentencing.

Nine-time drink driver fined

Whakatāne fruit-picker Wiremu Moeke has been fined $850, disqualified from driving and ordered to complete 12 months’ supervision as punishment for his ninth drink driving conviction.

Moeke, 67, was driving on McLean Road in Edgecumbe on September 1 when he failed to take a corner, crashed into a fence and ended up in a drain.

Tests showed he had a blood alcohol level of 125mg. The legal limit is 80mg.

Moeke was self-represented at the sentencing hearing after his lawyer was granted leave to withdraw on the grounds that the defendant no longer wanted her representation.

The court heard that Moeke’s last eight convictions for drink driving occurred between 1981 and 2012.

Two of them were for refusing a blood specimen.

Moeke said he felt as if he had improved in the past 12 years and that he had tried to do things right.

Judge Geoghegan said the defendant did not seem to feel accountable for his actions.

“It’s just about owning it. That’s all,” the judge said.

According to a pre-sentence report referenced by the judge, Moeke said he had drunk about six beers after a long day at work but left the address because of the behaviour of another person.

“Why could you not simply have walked away?”

Judge Geoghegan said while supervision and community work were recommended, community work would be setting Moeke up to fail due to his full-time job.

He acknowledged that in many ways he was dealing with the defendant as a first offender, which was a lenient approach.

Moeke was urged to instruct a lawyer as soon as possible to apply for a limited licence, which would allow him to get to work despite his 12-month disqualification.

Prison on the cards

Areka Natana has been warned a prison sentence is a distinct possibility because of his conviction for injuring with intent to injure.

Natana sought to be sentenced on Wednesday, the same day he pleaded guilty, but Judge Geoghegan said a pre-sentence report was required.

He was remanded to February 20 for sentencing.

Sentencing adjourned

Vincent Broughton is due to be sentenced in February for driving while his licence was suspended.

This week he confirmed to the court that he has obtained a full licence.

Lawyer Paul Devoy sought the adjournment of sentencing to allow him to make a section 94 application, which would see Broughton avoid a disqualification.

Rehabilitative sentence

Carlo Gavin is heading to rehab and he’s looking forward to it, the court heard this week.

Gavin was sentenced to 18 months’ intensive supervision for threatening to kill.

The sentence also serves as a replacement for 79 outstanding community work hours that were cancelled.

Lawyer Kylee O’Connor said Gavin acknowledged relapsing in his drug addiction, but he’d been off methamphetamine for about a month and re-engaged with support organisations.

She said the defendant was showing positive progress, having not committed any dishonesty offences during his relapse.

Previously he would have committed crimes to feed his meth habit, Ms O’Connor said.

“Though it’s not perfect, he is working towards sobriety.”

Part of Gavin’s reason for breaching his community work obligations was out of fear it would put him around methamphetamine users again.