Daniel Harte-West (28) was sentenced by Judge Stephen O’Driscoll in the Invercargill District Court yesterday.
He was convicted on charges of possessing an offensive weapon, contravening a protection order and assault on a person in a family relationship.
Harte-West was previously facing a count of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, but that was withdrawn by agreement.
He had been released from jail on October 13 last year and, two days before that, the Family Court had issued a final protection order in relation to the victim, a 23-year-old woman.
During the hearing yesterday, Judge O’Driscoll said Harte-West was still subject to release conditions when, on January 11, he entered the house of the woman and assaulted her, punching her and leaving bruises on her arms.
A second victim, a 26-year-old man, got involved when the female victim saw him through the window and appealed to him to call the police, the court heard.
Harte-West ran towards him and both men met in the driveway area.
The male victim was holding a wheel brace and Harte-West a steak knife, described as having a blade of 12cm, the judge said.
After the men yelled at each other, the victim made a forward flick motion with the brace towards the defendant, but stopped short of hitting him.
At the same time, Harte-West struck out at the man, stabbing him once in the upper throat area.
Harte-West immediately turned and ran away from the property.
Judge O’Driscoll said a pre-sentencing report stated Harte-West had a high risk of reoffending as he had previous similar convictions in relation to the female victim.
However, the judge also acknowledged the defendant had set some positive goals to turn his life around.
Those included distancing himself from antisocial friendships, addressing drug problems and improving his relationship with his children.
"While you may express a wish to change, Mr Harte-West, at the end of the day, it is a matter of you putting actions into place — rather than making promises to do things," the judge said.
He sentenced him to 15 months’ imprisonment and imposed release conditions which included non-association with both victims, no possession of alcohol or drugs, and attending any psychological and drug treatment as imposed by Corrections.
Judge O’Driscoll said that due to the facts of the offending, Harte-West would need to complete the term of imprisonment without having leave to apply for home detention.
