Man who stomped on pregnant partner s stomach sentenced to home detention
5 May, 2021 04:21 AM
4 minutes to read
Judge Mika said George Donnelly caused extreme harm to the victim. File photo / John Borren
A man who violently gouged his partner in the eyes and stomped repeatedly on her stomach while she was pregnant has been sentenced to home detention.
George Francis Donnelly, 25, appeared in the Hutt Valley District Court this afternoon on charges relating to the two incidents, which happened late last year.
The first attack was in August 2020, while he and the victim were at home in Lower Hutt.
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The man accused of walking through New Zealand’s longest commuter train tunnel appeared at the Hutt Valley District Court on Tuesday. Judge Christopher Tuohy declined the name suppression application, saying public interest in the case was high and he was not convinced by the argument put forward by the lawyer that the man’s 6-year-old daughter would suffer mental harm if the defendant was identified. However, the lawyer said she would appeal the decision, which meant that the accused cannot be named for now. The defendant’s lawyer now has 20 working days to lodge an appeal.
In the past couple of years, Customs has seized more than 13 kilograms of eutylone, a type of cathinone, at the border. Meanwhile, police are cracking down on gangs supplying the drugs in communities.
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/Stuff
Drugs seized at the 2021 Electric Avenue music festival included cathinones, synthetic cannabis, meth, MDMA and LSD. In the recent Hutt Valley case, court documents obtained by
Stuff state that Corrections officers found drugs in the woman’s handbag, when she drove into a checkpoint at Freyberg Rd, in Trentham, Upper Hutt, about 2.10pm on October 24, 2020. The checkpoint had been set up to stop drugs getting into nearby Rimutaka Prison.
Brittany Keogh11:26, May 04 2021
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Police have urged Wellington businesses to look out for counterfeit bank notes after a man was charged with possessing forged cash. (File photo)
A man has denied possessing counterfeit banknotes worth $1400 and other dishonesty charges. Brandon Smith, 25, who appeared at the Hutt Valley District Court before a registrar on Tuesday, is facing five charges relating to fraud allegations. Court documents allege that on March 17, 2021, at Lower Hutt, Smith used a document to obtain property dishonestly. He is also accused of having 14 forged $100 banknotes in his possession at Lower Hutt on April 7; receiving $1000 worth of stolen tools at Lower Hutt on February 16; receiving a stolen driver’s licence at Palmerston North on December 19, 2020; and obtaining control over $5000 by deception for financial advantage at Auckland on September 17, 2020.
MONIQUE FORD/Stuff
A tent set up by police protecting the scene was visible on Sunday. On Monday, Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said council representatives had spoken to the residents in the direct vicinity of the crime scene, with a tenant drop-in office expected to be set up on site from Tuesday. Councillors were expected to receive a written briefing on Monday afternoon. Several police officers, including forensic specialists, were combing over the scene on Sunday afternoon. A long-term neighbour of the victim said there had been “lots of problems” at the flats, and that the fatal incident had come as no surprise to him.