A self employed man has been sentenced to 20 months imprisonment for assaulting his wife.
The 35-year-old accused was convicted and sentenced in the Lautoka Magistrate’s Court for a count each of assault and breach of a domestic violence order committed on March 6 last year.
Court records show the accused visited his daughter at his sister’s residence, where the 32-year-old victim was also present.
The accused asked the victim why she changed her name on her birth certificate and her mobile phone.
They began to argue, and when the victim tried to leave the house with her daughter, the accused punched her left eye, causing injuries.
He also breached a DVRO issued on February 26 for the protection of the victim.
Aggrieved by the imprisonment term, he filed an appeal in the High Court, arguing that the magistrate erred in principle by failing to impose a partial suspended sentence by not considering the general principle for first offenders with other grounds.
Justice Riyaz Hamza has, however, found that the magistrate had duly exercised her sentencing discretion.
“Considering all the facts and circumstances of the case, it cannot be said that she erred in principle in exercising her discretion when failing to impose a partial suspended sentence,” Justice Hamza said.
“Therefore, I am of the opinion that the ground of appeal against sentence has no merit.”
