A woman subjected to a violent sex attack for several hours at the hands of her partner says she forgives him.
She told the Dunedin District Court this week that he was "not the man I know" when he committed the crimes and the fact he was using methamphetamine at the time meant he should not have been prosecuted.
She just wanted him home, she said.
Judge Michael Turner though stressed the drug use did not absolve the defendant of culpability and jailed him for four years and two months.
The pair had split up in June last year, and the man — aged in his 40s — handed over his key to the house.
But the court heard just days later he forced his way in through the bedroom window and got into bed with the victim.
The woman told the defendant she wanted to sleep but his sexual advances were persistent, so much so that she went to sleep in the lounge.
That did not deter her partner, and he inflicted a variety of sexual assaults on her.
A summary of facts said the victim was in such intense pain she began to cry.
Once the ordeal was over, he punched her twice in the face.
At 2.30am — four hours after he broke into the home — the defendant took the woman’s car and headed south.
After stealing $50 of fuel from a Mosgiel service station, he made his way towards Central Otago.
At Kyeburn-Hyde Rd he found a Nissan Navara with the keys in the ignition and swapped vehicles and was driving towards Middlemarch when he crashed into a paddock, rolling the vehicle on to its side.
The defendant completed a 160km round trip by hitching-hiking back to Dunedin, returning to his partner’s home where police were waiting.
He admitted the attack and the subsequent thefts.
The next day officers searched the man’s home and found a .44 calibre rifle in an unlocked cupboard along with 13 rounds of ammunition.
He did not hold a firearms licence, the court heard.
Counsel Sarah Saunderson-Warner said her client had experienced psychotic episodes since an early age and she accepted he was on parole at the time of the offending.
Judge Turner acknowledged the defendant’s mental health history but noted a psychologist’s report in which the man conceded he knew drug use exacerbated his issues.
The victim had allowed her partner to stay the night before the attack, without issue, and the judge said she was entitled to feel safe in her own home.
He granted name suppression for the defendant to protect the identity of the victim.
The man was convicted of attempted rape, unlawful sexual connection, injuring with intent to injure, theft, possessing a firearm without a licence and two counts of unlawfully taking a vehicle.
He will be eligible for parole in July next year.
