A woman who attacked a toddler with a meat cleaver in Ngāruawāhia has been sentenced to five years and one month in prison after a judge described the assault as “extraordinarily brutal”.
According to a report by the New Zealand Herald, Alka Dahiya appeared in the High Court at Hamilton for sentencing over the July 16, 2024 attack, in which the child suffered multiple injuries, including deep wounds to the neck, face and wrist.
The toddler, who was known to Dahiya and has automatic name suppression, required medical treatment and was left with significant scarring. Justice Mathew Downs said the child may also have suffered a brain injury that could have lasting effects on learning and behaviour.
The court heard Dahiya had taken a large meat cleaver, which she considered the sharpest knife she owned, before sitting the child on a yoga mat and attacking him. The boy later became unresponsive, the New Zealand Herald has reported.
Dahiya subsequently harmed herself before calling for help. She told police she had intended to kill the child.
She was taken to Waikato Hospital's Henry Bennett Centre following the incident, where clinicians believed she was experiencing an adjustment disorder and depressed mood. A later psychiatric assessment described her as being in an “acute psychological crisis,” as quoted by the New Zealand Herald.
Defence lawyer Richard Barnsdale said Dahiya had been under significant pressure after moving to New Zealand, learning English, dealing with financial and social difficulties and adjusting to major changes in her personal life.
He described the attack as a “one-off” resulting from an accumulation of stress and said the circumstances had led her to do “the unthinkable,” the New Zealand Herald has reported.
Crown solicitor Jacinda Hamilton, however, described the offending as “grave violence against a vulnerable child” and argued that Dahiya's intention to kill was evident from the nature of the injuries, as quoted by the New Zealand Herald.
Hamilton sought a starting point of up to 12 years' imprisonment, noting the maximum penalty for attempted murder is 14 years.
Barnsdale accepted the attack involved “extreme violence” but argued for a starting point of five to six years, with the possibility of home detention.
According to the New Zealand Herald, Justice Downs ultimately set a starting point of 10 years and six months. He applied a 24% discount for Dahiya's mental health difficulties, reducing the sentence to eight years, before further discounts, including 15% for her guilty plea.
“You made a sustained attempt on [the victim’s] life in an extraordinarily brutal manner,” Justice Downs told Dahiya.
“He could well have died.
“You intended he would,” the New Zealand Herald has quoted.
Dahiya was ultimately sentenced to five years and one month in prison.