Man seeks lenient sentence after bashing breastfeeding wife with shovel

A man who bashed his wife with a shovel while she was breastfeeding their child will be sentenced in Darwin Local Court next month.

Garrett Juan Daniels, 31, pleaded guilty last month and was due to learn his fate today, but the judge has given his lawyers more time to fight for a more lenient sentence.

Last month the court heard Daniels had been drinking at a unit in John Stokes Square in Nightcliff on June 8th, when he "became angry at (his wife) over jealousy issues”.

He began threatening her, then armed himself with a one metre-long shovel and used it to strike her “a number of times to the back of the head” while she was breastfeeding their child and unable to defend herself.

She suffered lacerations to the back of her head which bleed profusely but managed to grab the shovel off her husband with one hand.

Shortly after, her father arrived in a taxi and found his daughter at the door “bloodied and shaken”.

He put his daughter and grandchild in the vehicle but Daniels followed, yelling at his wife through the car window then laying down on the road to stop the taxi leaving the complex.

The 31-year-old also broke the handle of the driver’s side door while attempting to open it.

The taxi driver took the family to Nightcliff Police Station and the woman was taken to hospital.

Several hours later, Daniels was located in Parap and jumped out of a unit window in an attempt to avoid arrest.

His lawyer described the offence as very serious but said his client had expressed remorse and asked for him to be allowed to return to his home in southern Arnhem Land for supervision.

Justice Greg Smith said a clear message had to be sent about domestic violence, but that he would consider a lesser sentence if the defence could provide information from Aboriginal elders about how they would rehabilitate him.

“The prevalence of this sort of violence is so high,” he said.

“I want some clarity about this…I want to hear from people in the community about what they’re going to do to rehabilitate.”

Daniels will be sentenced next month.