Members of the public should be able to go grocery shopping on a Sunday without being confronted by someone brandishing a "huge" knife.
So said Judge Campbell Savage in the Oamaru District Court yesterday as he sentenced Ariana Kotou Allen (28) to nine months’ prison on charges of threatening to kill and possessing an offensive weapon.
About 11.30am on March 12, Allen went to Oamaru’s Meadowbank Dairy, where she encountered the complainant, whom she knew.
After the dairy owner managed to separate the pair, the defendant went outside to her car before returning to the shop holding a knife with a 30cm blade.
She briefly stood inside the entrance, prompting the complainant to retreat towards the counter, before she left again.
When the complainant walked out of the shop to his car, the defendant shouted "I’ll stab you G, in the shop", and continued yelling at him while holding the knife.
She then got in her car, but yelled remarks such as "b...." and the n-word to the complainant as he drove away.
The whole encounter was captured by the dairy’s CCTV system.
Counsel Katherine Henry said the offending was not premeditated, and the defendant had been responding to a "heated" situation in which she felt extremely threatened.
She was "full-on punched in the face" by the complainant, who was taller and got the better of her in the ensuing scuffle.
Her subsequent actions were prompted by a belief the complainant would "carry on things" later.
She wanted to "give him a message that he could not attack her again".
Although the defendant had an extensive criminal history, it included only one conviction for violent offending, Ms Henry said.
That history had to be viewed in the context of the defendant’s "difficult childhood and upbringing".
The defendant was keen to undergo rehabilitation as part of her sentence, including a parenting course so she could be a better mother to her two children.
She had not used methamphetamine since completing a prison sentence 11 months ago.
"She is genuinely trying to change her life."
Judge Campbell Savage said the offending was aggravated by the fact it occurred while the defendant was serving a sentence of community detention and intensive supervision, and her two previous convictions for possessing an offensive weapon.
"People going about their grocery shopping on a Sunday morning should not have to be confronted by a woman wielding a huge knife."
He imposed the nine months’ prison sentence after taking account of Allen’s early guilty plea.
