A man who punched his partner repeatedly in the chest as she lay in bed is trying to have his assault conviction overturned because he wants to become a youth social worker. The 34-year-old, who has interim name suppression, was earlier convicted of assault on a person in a family relationship for the late March attack. According to the summary of facts, the couple were at their Blenheim home when, in conversation, “the defendant took offence to the views of the victim in relation to a male he had previously had an altercation with”. He became aggressive and verbally abusive towards her, and she punched him in self defence before fleeing to a neighbour’s house, asking them to call police. The neighbours came with the victim back to the house to confront the man. “The defendant commenced a physical altercation with these persons while the victim went to her bedroom and attempted to go to sleep,” the summary said. It is unclear what occurred during this physical altercation, but directly afterwards the man came into the bedroom and confronted his partner, approaching her while she lay in bed and punched her hard in the torso about eight times with a closed fist. The judge has reserved his decision.
