Victim of vicious assault praised by judge
A sentencing judge has praised the bravery of a woman who has just returned to work three months after the vicious domestic assault that cracked her vertebrae.
Judge Michael Crosbie urged the woman to accept the offer of a restorative justice conference where she would be able to look Russell Alan Moa in the eye and tell him what she thought.
“Experience suggests she might gain closure from a restorative justice conference,” said the judge. “It sometimes gives the victim a little more peace.”
He jailed 47-year-old Moa for three years three months on the charge of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm to his partner of three months. The woman was at court to see him sentenced.
The pair had parted in July but Moa asked her back to the house and then assaulted her.
He slapped her and when she fell her head struck the metal handle of a duchess causing a large gash to the right side of her forehead. Moa then straddled her and strangled her until she had trouble breathing.
While she was on the floor he repeatedly kicked her in the back and stomped on her head, telling her: “I’m going to put you in a hole.”
She received a gash to her forehead, fractures to her ribs and vertebrae, and bruising to her face, chest, neck, and body. She is still having back pain, taking pills to help her sleep, and receiving counselling.
Moa has violence on his record, but nothing as serious as this.
Defence counsel Kirsten Gray said he was very remorseful and had written a letter of apology to the victim and was willing to meet her at a restorative justice conference if she wished. At the time of the assault he had been suffering from depression and had wrongly and sadly turned to alcohol.
As a result of the offending, he had lost his partner, lost his house renovation business, and was now facing bankruptcy. “He describes the offending as the biggest mistake of his life.”
Judge Crosbie said Moa’s conduct was vicious, prolonged and “reaches a certain point where its cowardly – she had no means of coming back from this once she was on the floor”.
He said: “I have been a judge a long time. The difference between someone surviving an assault and someone dying as a result is very narrow and it’s only luck sometimes.”
Category: News
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Connect
Connect with us via: