Sonya Eve Cresswell Sandon (McNamara) in Port Macquarie court after wounding man with knife
A Port Macquarie woman threw a knife at her then-partner’s face, leaving a nasty wound. Here’s what happened when she faced court.
Mid-North Coast
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A Mid-North Coast court has heard a graphic description of injuries on a man’s face after his partner at the time threw a knife at him.
Mother-of-three Sonya Eve Cresswell Sandon (aka McNamara) faced Port Macquarie Local Court on Thursday for sentencing.
She pleaded guilty to a range of domestic violence charges, including reckless wounding.
Magistrate Georgina Darcy told the court the cut on the man’s face was about 8-10 centimetres long, 3-4cm wide and 2-3cm deep, “swollen, with exposed red flesh”.
“It’s quite a descriptive paragraph in the police facts,” she said.
Sandon was on an apprehended violence order (AVO) to protect the victim at the time of the reckless wounding offence, the court heard.
“The legislation is clear – if you breach an AVO with violence, jail is the expected outcome,” Ms Darcy said.
Sandon’s lawyer Matthew Lindeman told the court the last time he saw his client was when she was sitting “in that glass room seeking bail” after being remanded in custody following the knife throwing incident in July.
“It was very fortunate she had family to provide support for her on bail otherwise she may have remained in custody,” he said.
Sandon was granted bail to live back in her home town of Gunnedah and the court heard that she has since stopped drinking alcohol.
Mr Lindeman said Sandon had a long standing problem with alcohol going back to her teens.
He said all prior offending, including other domestic violence matters, was linked to drinking.
Mr Lindeman told the court his client was an alcoholic.
However, Ms Darcy questioned the description based on a sentencing assessment report.
Sanson limited her drinking to up to two bottles of wine on a Saturday, the report stated
“Maybe I added the word alcoholic when I shouldn’t have,” Mr Lindeman said.
Sanson also destroyed property, which Ms Darcy said was a “petty, juvenile response to what you thought your former partner had been doing”.
Sanson was convicted and sentenced to a 10-month intensive correction order for reckless wounding. She was ordered to abstain from alcohol.
For two AVO breaches, Sanson was sentenced to a six-month community correction order and fined $600. She was also convicted and fined $400 for destroying property.
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