A woman who tried to stab a man with a pair of scissors which became embedded in the doorframe as he fled was influenced by the pain relief medication she was on at the time, her lawyer said.
It also happened against a backdrop of an untreated mental illness, after it was discovered that Shae Burgess-Poulter was still suffering the trauma of having been a victim of violent crime a decade ago.
She has been sentenced in the Nelson District Court to 18 months’ intensive supervision on a charge of assault with intent to injure, which arose while she was chopping tobacco with a pair of scissors.
The summary of facts said on the evening of May 25 last year, Burgess-Poulter and the victim were in a sleepout where she lived in Motueka when an argument arose over the tobacco.
Her anger towards the victim escalated. Burgess-Poulter threw a bottle of medication at him before reaching for the scissors she had been using to chop tobacco.
The police summary said she then lunged at the victim, brandishing and swinging the scissors, which then jammed in the doorframe as the victim fled and shut the door behind him.
He later said he believed he would have been stabbed had he not been able to leave, Judge Tony Snell said at sentencing.
The victim used the landlord’s phone to call the police.
Defence lawyer Steven Zindel said there was a “complicated background” to the offending. A psychiatrist’s report identified a number of challenges Burgess-Poulter lived with on a day-to-day basis, including a post-trauma condition linked to her being a victim of violent crime.
Judge Snell noted Burgess-Poulter had no history of violence, she was remorseful and the victim had forgiven her.
She believed she had been suffering from a semi-psychotic episode because of the pain relief medication she was on at the time.
Judge Snell said there was no value in sentencing her to anything else but intensive supervision, which offered long-term, wraparound support.
An order was made she was not to contact the victim without approval.
