Sub-human

Sub-human was my initial reaction to reading this story:

An enraged man beat his partner with a broom handle and poured boiling water over her abdomen and legs, stuffing her mouth with a sponge to stifle her screams.

The Wellington woman thought she would die during the four-day “reign of terror” in which she suffered severe burns and a broken eye socket. …

The court was told Griffiths and his partner argued over four days last August. He punched her, leaving her bruised all over her body and with a broken eye socket. At one point he beat her for several hours with a broomstick, breaking it in two.

He pushed a sponge into her mouth and poured boiling water over her abdomen and legs.

Judge Harrop said the behaviour was “gross, barbaric and demeaning”. He could only imagine the outcry if the same treatment had been given to an animal.

Griffiths’ partner was wearing a thin nightdress that provided no protection and the pain was excruciating, Judge Harrap said.

I can understand how some people can lose it and lash out in a moment of madness. I can not and will not ever understand how someone could beat someone up over four hours, let alone pouring boiling water on them.

There has to be something wrong with someone who can do that.

The court was told Griffiths had told police his partner had made up the abuse and the injuries were self-inflicted.

Yes, she poured boiling water onto herself.

Yesterday, Judge Stephen Harrop in Wellington District Court said there had been an element of torture to Griffiths’ “reign of terror” over his partner of several years. The judge jailed him for 7 1/2 years and ordered him to serve half the term.

The length of the jail term seems about right, but hopefully he will not get parole after half the term, unless he undergoes a radical personality change.

His offending occurred prior to the three strikes law, but I do wonder what previous offences he has, so one could work out what would have happened to him under the three strikes regime.