A woman who poured coffee on a love rival during a street-side attack is trying to move on and put the events behind her.
Amber Caitlin Thomas-Oliver appeared in the Dunedin District Court this afternoon having spent the last four months behind bars.
Judge Dominic Flatley sentenced the woman to six months’ community detention and 18 months’ intensive supervision on three charges of threatening to kill, assault, assault with intent to injure and wilful damage.
The court heard Thomas-Oliver committed the slew of offences against her ex-partner and his new girlfriend when she was “using methamphetamine and cannabis” to deal with the stress of her relationship breakdown.
On the morning of November 10 — while on bail and only two hours after appearing in court — the defendant was outside Coffee Culture in Roslyn.
Seeing her ex’s new partner securing her child in a car, Thomas-Oliver threw a cup of hot coffee over her back.
She pushed the victim in the chest, closed the car door on her, and forced her on top of her child in the passenger seat.
The victim filmed the aftermath to the attack during which Thomas-Oliver said: "I will f...ing kill you."
She later told police she was "having a mental health episode” and was unable to remember most of the incident.
A month earlier, Thomas-Oliver bombarded her former partner with 193 messages, 25 phone calls and two "inflammatory" social-media posts.
"Leave her. Otherwise I’m getting gangs involved," one message said.
"I 100% do not care if she is murdered and her kids have no mother, she deserves it," said another.
She also mentioned Sean Buis, a man who was allegedly murdered at a Dunedin lookout in July.
On October 12, Thomas-Oliver went to her ex’s Mornington home and poured a chemical over two vehicles parked outside, damaging the paintwork.
One was a Ford, which police said had "immense sentimental value" as it had belonged to the victim’s dead friend, the court heard.
Thomas-Oliver expressed remorse for her actions and will serve her sentence of community detention in Christchurch.
Counsel Deborah Henderson said her client simply wanted to move on with her life.
She will be GPS monitored and is banned from travelling south of Rakaia while serving the sentence.
