Jail term for repeat violent offender

July 9, 2014 | By More

Bottles-02Paul James Tangahue has gone to jail for six months for his fifth conviction for assaulting women.

The 41-year-old called the police himself when he woke after a drunken night and realised that something had gone terribly wrong.

The partner he punched in the face when he returned home may have pain for the rest of her life from a fractured cheekbone that may not be able to be repaired by surgery.

“You came home to where your partner was living, woke her up, grabbed her, and punched her in the face in what can only be described as a brutal and cowardly assault,” Judge Robert Murfitt said at Tangahue’s Christchurch District Court sentencing.

He noted previous convictions for assaults on women – two in 2006, and two more in 2010. Tangahue was jailed for the last of them.

Defence counsel Claire Hislop said it was accepted that the offending would have been “incredibly scary for the victim”. Tangahue acknowledged his violent past, but she said he had lasted two years in his latest relationship without offending. He had learnt something from his earlier anger management programmes.

Miss Hislop handed the judge letters from Tangahue’s employer and doctor.

Judge Murfitt said the incident had happened after Tangahue had drunk himself into oblivion.

In some respects he had been a good citizen, and as a crewman on a fishing boat he was a good, reliable worker, with a quiet demeanour.

“But you turn ugly when you are in a domestic environment and you are contaminated with drink,” he said.

He jailed Tangahue for six months, to be followed with six months of special release conditions when he will have to attend programmes to deal with his alcohol and violence issues, and any other counselling or treatment required.

Category: News

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