Second-strike sentence for scalding water attack in prison
File image. © Andrew Bardwell
A woman will have to serve all of a three-year eleven-month jail term imposed as a second-strike sentence for throwing a bucket of scalding water over a fellow inmate at Christchurch Women’s Prison.
Judge Raoul Neave said he had considered sending 27-year-old Amelia Rongomai Hill to the High Court where an open-ended sentence of preventive detention could be imposed because of her appalling record.
She has 22 previous violence convictions including assault, assault with intent to injure, and aggravated robbery.
He decided he could step back from sending her to the High Court because Hill had undergone a restorative justice conference where she and the victim had reached an understanding, and because the victim was recovering well from the burn injuries.
He reduced her sentence for the successful conference and for her early guilty plea and imposed the 47-month jail term. Under the three-strikes warning system, Hill will have to serve all of the term.
Judge Neave said he hoped that her release back into the community at the end of her term could still be “managed” so that she could get the help she desperately needed.
Hill had been serving a three-year eight-month term for aggravated robbery, when she carried out the scalding water attack on another inmate in July. She said she committed the assault because the victim had sent out of prison some photographs that were precious to her, and had been making comments about Hill and her “prison wife”.
Defence counsel Craig Fletcher argued that preventive detention was not required. He said Hill had been in Child, Youth, and Family care from an early age and was becoming institutionalised. She was aware she would have to serve the full sentence and had been undergoing counselling to address her issues. Hill had a young daughter and realised it would be a long time before she could have any sort of interaction with her. The attack had arisen from tensions and jealousy.
Judge Neave said Hill had had an appalling upbringing. “The lessons learnt at your mother’s knee were those of violence and physical abuse. This has led you to a troubled life time in care and drug difficulties, and it has left you with a major anger problem.”
He noted that the attack had caused first degree (superficial) burns to the woman’s face, neck, stomach, left arm, and right leg above the knee, but more serious second degree burns to her right forearm. The injuries were healing well and there there no indication of permanent scarring or disability.
The attack had involved using a weapon against a vulnerable victim who was an inmate and had nowhere to run, and it had occurred while she was subject to a jail sentence.
He hoped that Hill would take advantage of any assistance made available to her in prison. Without counselling and treatment she would have no hope of resuming life on the outside and having any meaningful contact with her daughter.
The present sentence will be cumulative on the jail term that Hill is already serving.
Category: Focus
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