When a Central Otago woman beat someone up she was concerned she would not get her children back, so she grabbed an axe and went to sort things out.
Shantelle Sharee McNally (32) appeared before the Dunedin District Court this week after pleading guilty to charges of injuring with intent to injure, assault with intent to injure and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The defendant's downward spiral last summer began on New Year's Day when she and her partner were visiting a house in Alexandra. McNally was asked to leave when she started smoking cannabis, the court heard.
She did not go quietly. The defendant pushed the victim to the ground and beat her around the upper body, head and shoulders with a bottle of bourbon.
After a police complaint was made, McNally went to visit a witness the next day. She told the man he had to pay for a lawyer to defend her in court and demanded $10,000 by the end of the month or ''she would be back and he would get a hiding''.
Two weeks later, McNally returned and told him to make a statement saying she had been threatened before committing the violent attack.
On January 17 though, the threats were ramped up.
McNally, wielding an axe and accompanied by others, went back to see the man.
She chopped the weapon into the steps by his bare feet and said: ''the next one will be through your head if you don't do what I asked''.
According to court documents, McNally ''started to lose it'', hitting the house with the axe while her male friend stood over the victim and dictated a new statement for him to write out.
When the defendant read it, she punched the man in the ear, causing it to bleed.
''That was for lying,'' she said.
McNally later explained she had tried to pervert the course of justice because she saw it as the only way to get her children back.
Defence counsel Cate Andersen said her client had problems controlling her anger, but while in custody for the last year, she had made dramatic progress in that area.
The court heard McNally had been working in the prison library and had written a book about the effect of drug abuse on children, which was to be distributed to other inmates.
The defendant admitted being a ''social methamphetamine user'' for the last 14 years and being seriously addicted for three.
Judge Kevin Phillips acknowledged her turnaround while behind bars.
McNally was jailed for two years eight months.
