Matheus Portela Chaves (25) was found guilty of wounding with reckless disregard after a judge-alone trial in December last year.
He was sentenced to 150 hours’ community work and 12 months’ supervision by Judge Russell Walker in the Queenstown District Court in March this year.
However, Portela Chaves appealed the decision, believing that his likely deportation as a result of the conviction was disproportionate to the offending.
A hearing took place before Justice Robert Osborne in the High Court at Invercargill last month.
Portela Chaves was out drinking with friends in Queenstown’s CBD on June 2 last year when he attempted to speak to a woman in Searle Lane.
Despite her repeatedly asking him to leave, he persisted, and one of her male companions intervened and was seriously assaulted.
After an exchange of words, the victim shoved the defendant in the chest with both hands.
Portela Chaves punched the victim hard in the face, causing him to fall to the footpath, then walked back to his associates in Camp St.
The victim was taken to Lakes District Hospital, and later to Dunedin Hospital, where three titanium plates and 13 screws were inserted in his jaw during a four-hour operation to repair multiple fractures.
During the High Court hearing, Portlela-Chaves’ lawyer Bryony Shackell said her client was not looking for a fight that night.
“But when that fight was brought to him, he had to make a split second decision.”
It was extremely regrettable that the decision Portela Chaves made was to swing a punch, the court was told.
In her submissions outlined in Justice Osborne’s decision, Ms Shackell said the convicting judge overestimated the gravity of Portela Chaves’ offending, and had erred in finding the consequences of conviction were not all out of proportion to that gravity.
However, Justice Osborne stated that Judge Walker had correctly assessed Portela Chaves’ offending as moderately high and had appropriately taken into account mitigating and aggravating factors in relation to the case.
“In the circumstances, I conclude that the Judge weighed the factors that needed to be weighed.”
In declining the appeal, Justice Osborne said the consequences of Portela Chaves’ conviction were not out of proportion to the offending.
