A man who bashed his partner has lost his appeal against a three-year jail term.
The Court of Appeal dismissed Michael Hoera Harris' plea and said it was satisfied the sentence was within the available sentencing range.
In its judgment, delivered by Judge Ronald Young, it said that in September last year Harris and the complainant, his partner, had been drinking at a Dannevirke hotel.
As they were leaving Harris pushed the woman, who fell against a concrete wall and lost conscious.
She remembered being dragged across the ground and waking in Harris' house where he punched her and kicked her in the head. Later he continued the assault at his house.
Harris was found guilty by a jury of injuring with intent to injure and sentenced to three years' jail.
Harris' lawyer challenged the sentencing judge's two-and-a-half-year starting point for the offending and his uplift of six months, and said that a starting point of no more than two years was appropriate.
Judge Young said the case was one of moderate to serious injury.
"The assaults on the complainant caused loss of consciousness on two occasions. The complainant suffered severe bruises around her face and eyes, bruising throughout her body, and grazing on her arms and legs."
He said she had been attacked from behind and around the head.
"She was vulnerable, given she was being attacked when intoxicated, initially from behind and when she was only partly conscious," said Judge Young.
He said Harris had eight previous convictions involving violence, many of which involved violence toward women.
"An uplift of six months' imprisonment was open to the judge. We are satisfied the sentence of three years was within the available sentencing range," said Judge Young.
