A man who bashed his breastfeeding wife with a shovel has had his sentencing delayed to allow his lawyers to fight for a more lenient punishment.
Garret Juan Daniel, 31, pleaded guilty to the charges against him after becoming so angry at his wife “over jealousy issues” he violently attacked her.
After he had been drinking in a unit, the Darwin man threatened his wife before picking up a metre-long shovel and struck her “a number of times to the back of the head” while breastfeeding their child and unable to defend herself.
Despite bleeding profusely from deep lacerations she sustained to the back of her head, she was able to grab the shovel off her enraged husband with one hand.
Shortly after the attack, her father found his daughter “bloodied and shaken” and he immediately put her into the taxi he’d arrived in.
However, Daniels followed the cab while yelling at his wife through the window and broke the handle of the driver’s door trying to wrench it open. He then lay down on the road so the taxi could not leave the complex.
Eventually, the woman was taken to hospital and Daniels jumped out of a unit window to avoid arrest.
Daniels’ lawyer said the offence was very serious, but believed his client’s remorse could make him eligible to return home to South Arnhem Land for supervision.
Justice Greg Smith gave the lawyers more time to outline how the Aboriginal elders would rehabilitate the 31-year-old but insisted a clear message had to be sent about domestic violence.
“The prevalence of this sort of violence is so high,” he said.
“I want some clarity about this…I want to hear from people in the community about what they’re going to do to rehabilitate.”
