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Violent offender claims earthquake trauma
A man convicted of assaulting his partner for the fourth time says he has been traumatised by Christchurch?s February 22 earthquake.
Matthew John Ryland admitted the assault charge in a Christchurch District Court session inside the men?s prison today.
His defence counsel Rupert Glover told Judge Alistair Garland that Ryland had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder since the earthquake.
?This was a result of pulling at least two bodies out of buildings during the earthquake,? Glover said. ?He has got on-going treatment with a psychologist, when he eventually gets out.?
Ryland has a bad criminal history but the three-month jail term imposed by Judge Garland today means the 38-year-old will be released immediately to take up work laying cables to help restore the city?s communications system.
He was granted bail after his arrest but was picked up again within a day for not abiding by a condition not to contact the victim and has been in custody since August 4 ? almost exactly the equivalent of a three-month jail term.
Police prosecutor Bronwen Skea said the assault took place at 5.30am on August 3 at the home of a woman who had been in an on-again off-again relationship with Ryland for years.
Ryland pulled the blanket off her, pinned her to the bed, and put his fingers in her mouth to force it open, stretching her lips. He said he did that because she was biting him. She was left bruised and sore.
Judge Garland noted it was Ryland?s fourth assault on the same victim, in a record that includes other assaults stretching back to 1995. He had been jailed previously.
Probation told the Judge Ryland was already subject to prison release conditions but had not been reporting as required.
The judge jailed him for three months and noted that existing conditions required him to attend programmes for anger management and alcohol and drug abuse assessment.
He told Ryland: ?I expect you would now report and if you don?t, I expect you will be breached and find yourself right back here in prison. It seems to me that it is time you did something about anger management issues and found a different way of resolving your disputes.?
