Mother-in-Law Says Wife-Beater Should Get Medal, Not Jail
A New Zealand man convicted of beating his wife found an unusual supporter at an Auckland court--his mother-in-law.
“I don’t think he deserves a sentence. He deserves a medal,” she told Otahuhu District Judge David Harvey. “He has literally been through hell.”
The woman said her daughter had driven the 36-year-old man, whose name was withheld, to extremes and that if there was any trouble, “she would’ve asked for it.”
Harvey, who conceded that the defendant was “the recipient of a considerable amount of verbal and psychological abuse,” sentenced him to supervision for one year and ordered that he have anger and stress management counseling.
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