A woman choked unconscious in the shower by her partner is urging the court to strip his name suppression to protect other women and those in the BDSM community. The man appeared for sentencing in the Wellington District Court on Wednesday, having been found guilty of strangulation.
During a nine-day jury trial, the court heard the man met the victim and another complainant on Tinder. All three were active participants in the BDSM , or kink community, and all were involved in the sex industry. He was accused of intentionally strangling both women until they passed out, but was only found guilty on one of the charges.
In her victim impact statement, read out to the court on Wednesday, the victim said she entered a relationship with the man at a vulnerable time after leaving a lengthy marriage.
She said she still had nightmares about the man, and now had PTSD as well as skin, nerve and joint damage suffered during the relationship. In his sentencing submissions, Crown prosecutor Tim Bain said the man was aware of the dangers of strangulation, and that the way he strangled the victim - from behind, in a chokehold, and with no warning - fell well outside the boundaries of consensual breath play.
Couchman said there was no animosity or hostility in the offending, which he argued set it apart from a typical strangulation case. Both were in the shower and then without any warning, the act that forms the basis of the charge took place. He argued the feeling of fear was an important factor in other strangulation cases.
