Dysfunctional relationship leads to care | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

A woman who had "slipped through the gaps" has been sentenced to 24 months' supervised care after ending up in court.

The woman, who has name suppression, was convicted of two counts of assault and one count of intentional damage.

On November 25, 2011, the woman, who is mentally impaired, became angry and upset at her now former partner, who is also mentally impaired, after he would not let her use his cellphone to make a call.

She picked up his Xbox console, and threw it, breaking bits off it and stopping it from working.

She continued to throw items around, including a small coffee table, breaking its legs off. When the man asked her to stop, she lashed out at him and struck him in the face.

She then went into the kitchen and overturned the kitchen table and threw the chairs around the room, snapping the back of one of them.

The man tried to restrain her and remove her from the property, but she would not leave. She struggled and ended up with a fat lip, the court was told.

He was eventually able to get her outside and she left on foot. The victim flagged down a passing patrol soon after.

He suffered a scratch under his right eye, near his nose, but did not require medical attention.

The woman later told police she got angry after she was not allowed to use the phone.

She was charged with a second assault on the same man on January 10, 2012.

Stephanie Burlace, representing the woman, said reports showed she had limited understanding and recommended a compulsory treatment order.

She also asked that these prepared reports be released to the woman's family. Judge Matheson said the charges arose from a dysfunctional relationship, and were a culmination of a period of time when the woman was struggling with issues she had had for a long time.

Clinical psychologists suggested she had an intellectual disability and recommended she be ordered to be cared for as a care recipient.

The woman was sentenced to 24 months' supervised care at Timata Hou in Porirua.

During the sentencing, the woman's mother, who was in the public gallery with her husband, began to weep.