Djani Christopher McNeill (22) and the victim began a sexual relationship last year, but the woman said she called things off when she realised ‘‘what sort of person he was’’.
McNeill was convicted of burgling her home in July last year and a protection order was issued in her favour when he appeared before the Dunedin District Court.
It took the defendant just six weeks to contravene that.
Late one night in November, McNeill turned up at the victim’s home unannounced and yelled out to her through the back door.
The woman refused to open the door and asked him to leave but he refused. She turned the lights off inside but it had little effect on McNeill’s persistence.
Even the intervention of a neighbour did not prompt him to leave.
When police found him, he said he was aware the order was in place restricting his contact with the victim, but he loved her and needed to speak to her.
McNeill pleaded guilty to breaching a protection order and trespass but the allegations stemming from an incident on January 4 this year were hotly disputed.
At a judge-alone trial in July, the woman described the defendant again visiting her without invitation.
She said McNeill put his arm around her throat from behind and, though she could still breathe, she struggled to extricate herself.
The defendant said it was ‘‘just a hug’’ and that he had gone there simply to get his favourite singlet.
Ultimately Judge Kevin Phillips could not be sure exactly what had taken place.
While he acquitted him on charge of strangulation and burglary, he ruled there had been some form of physical abuse and convicted him of another protection-order breach.
Counsel Brendan Stephenson said McNeill had been on bail in Auckland with his mother and planned to stay there and find work as an apprentice welder or roofer.
‘‘His outlook on life has markedly improved,’’ he said.
He was sentenced to five months’ community detention, 250 hours’ community work and 12 months’ intensive supervision.
