Judge unhappy with charge reduction for strangulation
A 26-year-old man strangled a woman until she lost consciousness, then rang the ambulance and performed CPR on her, the Christchurch District Court was told.
Timothy Frank Tomlinson, a structural engineer, was sentenced on a charge of assaulting a woman in the Christchurch District Court, but Judge Jane Farish said she was not happy with the reduced police charge he had pleaded guilty to.
He had previously been charged with assault with intent to injure the woman.
She said Tomlinson had performed a non-fatal strangulation, and the woman would have been fighting for her breath, but he did not stop before she lost consciousness.
Tomlinson lost control and was extremely violent, then when he realised the seriousness of what he had done he ahd called the ambulance and did CPR on her. It indicated how serious and how far he went, she said.
He had attended a Stopping Violence programme, and was a young man with real promise, but had a dark side to his personality – “Work on that and ensure it never happens again,” she told him.
Defence counsel Andrew Riches said the woman would not attend a restorative justice meeting, and had a protection order against Tomlinson.
Judge Farish sentenced Tomlinson to 200 hours community work, and ordered an emotional harm payment of $2000 to be paid to the woman.
Category: Focus
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