A woman who was beaten by her husband with a cricket bat and throttled has told a judge that sending her husband to prison would punish her.
Daljit Singh admitted charges of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, assault with a weapon and threatening to kill.
He was sentenced at the High Court in Auckland this morning to three-and-a-half years in prison.
At the sentencing Singh's wife told the court she did not want to throw away a six year marriage.
She said her husband had already spent a year in prison on remand for something she would not have reported to police.
The woman, who has permanent name suppression, also spoke of the arrest having a bigger impact on her than her husband's violence.
She she said punishing Singh would actually punish her and the children.
The woman said without her husband, she did not feel like living and that if he was deported at the end of his sentence, their relationship would suffer.
According to court documents, Singh believed his wife was having an affair with their flatmate.
On a night in July last year, he confronted the pair as they lay on the couch in their Sandringham home watching a movie under a blanket.
When Singh pulled the blanket off the pair he noticed his wife's pants pulled slightly down off her hip.
He began yelling and swearing and kicked her in the stomach before picking up a cricket bat.
He then hit the flatmate twice with the bat, knocking him to the ground before again turning on his wife.
Singh hit her around the head and arm, knocking her out.
The flatmate disarmed him of the cricket bat but Singh then used his hands to strangle his wife, telling her that he would kill her tonight.
When the flatmate eventually pulled Singh away, he told the flatmate that if he came between him and his wife, he would kill him too.
He also initially stopped the flatmate calling an ambulance, saying: "If you help her, I will kill her. Don't touch her, just let her die."
Singh's lawyer Martin Hislop said his client would likely be deported back to India once he has served his sentence.
He also read a letter from Singh in which he apologised to the Indian community and society as a whole.
He said it was a one-off and he had now learned to control his anger.
Justice Davidson told Singh that he couldn't have asked for a more eloquent plea than the one his wife had made on his behalf.
The judge said although Singh's wife forgave him, it was now up to him to prove he was worthy of her support.
Singh replied that he would do his best.
But he said the victim's views don't outweigh the public interest in imposing a sentence.
He said the attack was carried out by a large man on a small, defenceless, vulnerable woman.
