After being thrown against a wall and sliding to the ground, a young woman who was being beaten by her partner in public curled up into the foetal position.

She was crying but that didn’t stop Rua Aranui-Maehe from continuing to punch,  while members of the public watched on.

The woman told a restorative justice conference she had suffered no injuries and refused to give the court a victim impact statement.

Aranui-Maehe denied the assault, saying he was hugging her to calm her down because she was having a .

They both say they were drunk and can’t remember the details.

But members of the public did and are being praised for providing evidence that has led to Aranui-Maehe’s conviction.

After the 21-year-old was sentenced in the  this week for assault, Women’s Refuge chief executive Ang Jury said the victim’s reaction was typical.

Jury said it was common for women in abusive relationships not to provide a victim impact statement to the court or make a statement to police.

She said there were many reasons why women didn’t leave abusive relationships, including a lack of money, nowhere to go, or they were invested in the relationship, perhaps because children were involved.

She encouraged people to step in, as women often wouldn’t testify against their partners, and praised the actions of a bystander, saying their decision to tell police what they witnessed was “absolutely the right thing to do”.

“Who knows what would have happened if police hadn’t arrived, it could have been much worse,” Jury said.

Women's Refuge chief executive Ang Jury has praised the actions of a person who witnessed an assault. Photo / RNZ

A heated argument

On Monday, the Wellington District Court heard Aranui-Maehe and his partner got into a heated argument on a central city street in the early hours of February 25 last year after the woman refused to return his wallet and keys when he wanted to go home.

As the woman attempted to walk away, he blocked her path or pushed her backwards.

When the woman finally broke free and ran he followed her, grabbing her by her shoulders and threw her into a building’s foyer.

“The victim slid down the wall into a foetal position holding her arms over her head and began to cry,” the court heard.

Aranui-Maehe then kicked her in the head, hitting her chin. After she fell backwards, he knelt down to pick her up, before punching her about seven times in the head and body.

When she slid to the floor of the foyer, he grabbed her by the hair and began pulling her towards him.

Police arrived and arrested him.

‘She assaulted me’

In explanation, Aranui-Maehe denied assaulting the victim and said witnesses had given police false information.

He also said it was the victim who had assaulted him, although he didn’t want to lay charges.

He also denied hitting the victim with his full force, saying if he had done so there would have been more injuries.

Aranui-Maehe sought a discharge without conviction, his lawyer John Miller telling the court his client faced a disqualifying conviction for his “chosen occupation” as a security guard.

This would put him back into entry-level positions, which he held before he got his security training, he said.

Miller said his client had attended restorative justice and counselling. He also asked the court to consider his client’s young age, guilty plea and previous good character.

Miller told the court there were no obvious injuries and suggested the level of force in the summary of facts may have been exaggerated, although this was unknown because there were no recorded injuries.

Together, these factors allowed for a discharge without conviction, he said.

Police opposed the discharge.

Prosecutor Alisha Gilchrist said there was no information before the court of the impact a conviction would have on his career prospects.

She described the offending as moderate and said police still held concerns for the victim’s safety.

A kick to the head and punches to the body

In deciding whether to grant the discharge, Judge Tania Warburton referred to the breach of trust and the level of violence, which included a kick to the head and punches to the body.

In mitigation, the judge said Aranui-Maehe was young, had pleaded guilty, had no previous convictions and attended a restorative justice conference and a non-violence programme.

There was also a history of family harm callouts between the couple, although there had been no arrests.

Reports prepared for sentencing showed he had little insight into his offending, she said.

Judge Warburton acknowledged Aranui-Maehe’s work as a security guard, but said there was no evidence as to whether a conviction would affect his security certificate.

“I have no evidence from your employer aside from your employment contract,” she said.

The judge said while she accepted that Aranui-Maehe may lose his job as a result of a conviction, it was not out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending.

On a charge of assault with intent to injure and assault on a person in a family relationship, she sentenced him to six months' supervision.

He was ordered not to possess or consume alcohol or drugs, to complete another non-violence programme and to attend an alcohol and drug assessment as recommended by the probation officer.

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.