A Tongan man was denied parole for the first time after being jailed for stabbing an Oamaru, NZ mother of four in front of her family.
The parole board heard 30-year-old Manu Hausia had recently been reclassified as a high-security prisoner after accruing eight misconducts.
Manu Hausia told the Parole Board he wanted to return to Tonga. He came to New Zealand on an interim visitor visa, before the incident happened in February 2021.
He was jailed for six-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to four charges.
A court summary of facts said Hausia’s first victim was a solo mum with five children who met him at a rugby game in Auckland at the start of the year.
They began a relationship and started living together a short time later in Oamaru.
At about midnight on June 19, Hausia was at their place in Oamaru waiting for the victim to return home from church.
When she got home, the court heard, he confronted her, requesting to see her phone.
While he was checking her phone, she went to take a shower.
But when she came out and laid down on her bed, Hausia attacked.
He punched her in the head with full force, causing her to scream and raise her a
As she lay there, he continued to rain punches down on her head and body, causing her to lose consciousness.
The woman’s 1-year-old son was 2m from the bed and started crying, distracting Hausia from the assault.
She regained consciousness and crawled into her 11-year-old son’s bedroom where she blacked out again.
The summary says that he was still angry as he followed her.The young boy tried to stop the assault on his mother and phoned the police.
Hausia fled the property and was later found in Ashburton.
The victim was admitted to Oamaru hospital, suffering severe swelling to her face, upper body, arms, bleeding from her ears, and concussion.
When police spoke to him, Hausia admitted punching her numerous times as there had been a “misunderstanding”.
Hausia, who has no previous convictions, declined to be interviewed by police and gave no explanation for his actions.