Sentencing — domestic violence — wounding — injuring with intent to injure — head injury — strangulation — Nuku v R [2012] NZCA 584 . The defendant appeared for sentence on one charge of wounding with intent to injure and another of injuring with intent to injure. The victim was the complainant's former partner. The defendant arrived uninvited at the complainant's home, with family present, to see his child. The pair got into an argument and the defendant bit the complainant's finger. Police subsequently arrived and issued a safety notice, following which the defendant returned later that night and pulled the complainant from her chair by her hair and repeatedly stomped on her head and strangled her until she passed out. The Judge identified the aggravating features of the offending, namely: the defendant returning to the complainant's home in contravention of the police safety order; the unprovoked stomping and strangulation; the biting; and the fact the offending occurred in the complainant's home where the defendant was not invited. The Judge viewed these aggravated features as placing the offending at the bottom end of band 3, per Nuku v R, and adopted a starting point of three years for the injuring with intent to injure charge and two years' imprisonment for the wounding charge (biting). The Judge, taking into account totality principles, fixed the starting point at four years and six months' imprisonment. The Judge uplifted six months for similar prior convictions but granted an 18 percent discount for the defendant's eventual guilty plea. The end sentence was four years' for the injuring with intent to injure and 18 months' imprisonment for the wounding charge. Judgment Date: 30 January 2019. * * * Note: names have been changed to comply with legal requirements. * * *