An Indian MAN who jumped the counter of a pizza shop where his wife worked and tried to throttle her has been sentenced to eight months’ jail.
Melbourne (18 May 2014) – The Ringwood Magistrates’ Court was told last week that the man, who cannot be named, punched his wife in the face and stabbed her in a shoulder with a sauce spreader.
He told her if she didn’t die, he’d come back, saying: “I’ll kill you. If you are safe today, next time I’ll kill you definitely.”
Just weeks earlier, the woman had been granted an intervention order against her estranged husband.
The couple had separated this year after three years of marriage.
An intervention order was granted in March, and the attack occurred last month.
The court heard the man, an Indian national, was irate because he believed his wife had used him to secure Australian residency.
He claimed she had started seeing another man shortly after their wedding.
The court heard the man was high on synthetic cannabis at the time of the attack and claimed not to remember it.
Arguing he suffered a psychiatric illness, the man promised Magistrate Doug Bolster he would return to India to seek psychiatric treatment if he were released on a suspended sentence.
But Mr Bolster said there was no evidence the man was mentally ill, and even if he went to India, there was nothing to stop his returning to Australia.
“My concern is for the welfare of the victim,” he said, sentencing the man to eight months’ jail.