{"id":30151,"date":"2025-09-18T19:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/30151\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T19:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:41:07","slug":"waikato-man-carey-goodwin-forces-ex-into-car-strangles-her-while-driving-at-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/30151\/","title":{"rendered":"Waikato man Carey Goodwin forces ex into car, strangles her while driving at speed"},"content":{"rendered":"

While his lawyer pushed for a community detention sentence<\/a>, Judge Tini Clark said the offending warranted something heftier. <\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m going to crash into that pole\u2019<\/p>\n

The court heard Goodwin and his victim met up at Rushton Park, Morrinsville, around 10pm on January 8 last year.<\/p>\n

However, things soon got heated.<\/p>\n

\"CareyCarey Nicholas Goodwin was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court. Photo \/ Maryana Garcia<\/p>\n

As the victim half sat on the passenger seat of his car with her door open, an agitated Goodwin got into the driver\u2019s seat and suddenly drove off at speed.<\/p>\n

The victim was taken by surprise and could only lift her legs as Goodwin reached across her and pulled her door shut.<\/p>\n

She asked to get out, fearing for her safety, but he wouldn\u2019t let her.<\/p>\n

Instead, he sped down Rushton Rd, before turning on to Studholme St and then Coronation Rd.<\/p>\n

While he slowed for a corner, the victim was contemplating jumping out of the car and opened the door.<\/p>\n

But she was told if she didn\u2019t shut it, he would crash the car and their daughter wouldn\u2019t see either of them again.<\/p>\n

He then aimed the vehicle at a street pole while travelling at high speed.<\/p>\n

She closed the door and the car narrowly missed the pole.<\/p>\n

The victim screamed at Goodwin to stop, and as he slowed for a pedestrian crossing, she attempted to get out but was grabbed by her shirt and hair and pulled down on to his lap.<\/p>\n

He then put his forearm across her neck and looked into her eyes as he sped ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The victim] was unable to breathe … she feared she would be killed,\u201d the summary of facts stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe grabbed at his eyes and his face.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then stopped the car. She jumped out, feeling sick and dazed, but was told to get back in.<\/p>\n

She returned to the vehicle but threw out Goodwin\u2019s hat so he would stop again.<\/p>\n

When he did, he hit her on the side of the head and went to retrieve his hat.<\/p>\n

She took the opportunity to flee but was chased, tackled and picked up by Goodwin and bundled into the backseat of the car.<\/p>\n

She opened the door and, noticing members of the public, yelled for help.<\/p>\n

Goodwin made more threats, but the nearby people came to her rescue and took her inside their house as Goodwin drove away.<\/p>\n

\u2018Difficult life experiences\u2019<\/p>\n

Reading through the submissions from defence counsel, Kerry Hadaway, Judge Clark said she \u201cdid raise an eyebrow\u201d about the 25% discount sought for Goodwin\u2019s rehabilitation and addiction.<\/p>\n

Hadaway pointed out the range was 5% to 30%.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntoxicating yourself and committing an offence is not a mitigating factor,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is some recognition for addiction, and I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re limited to here,\u201d the judge said, while accepting Goodwin was making inroads with his rehab.<\/p>\n

Hadaway said her client was exposed to drugs at a young age and drugs had impacted this offending.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Goodwin has had very difficult life experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hadaway said he had \u201cmade such a significant effort in terms of rehabilitation and can be proud of doing that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018No excuse for you now\u2019<\/p>\n

Judge Clark agreed to give Goodwin a 25% discount for his guilty pleas, along with credit for his time on electronically monitored bail.<\/p>\n

But she disagreed that his rehab efforts were worth 25%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most significant issue here is Mr Goodwin\u2019s use of drugs,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hold a strong view that as someone goes through life, it\u2019s for them to take responsibility for harmful behaviour, which may involve intoxicating themselves regularly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do accept it can be a struggle if they are addicted, and I accept Mr Goodwin was addicted but that does not absolve him of his behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said it wasn\u2019t as simple as saying that he\u2019d ended up in this situation because of his upbringing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are other members of [his] family that have not ended up in the same situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Judge Clark said the rehab work he\u2019d done meant she wouldn\u2019t send him to prison. <\/p>\n

Instead, she sentenced him to seven and a half months of home detention and disqualified him from driving for six months.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Goodwin, carry on with the good work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere really is no excuse for you now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While his lawyer pushed for a community detention sentence, Judge Tini Clark said the offending warranted something heftier.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1975,9218,3246,3944,29221,3549,4189,29223,679,8223,2740,29222,1364,296,14910,5158,111,43,139,69,5502,29225,25093,25260,29224,2846,12419,1524,6123],"class_list":["post-30151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-at","tag-before","tag-both","tag-car","tag-carey","tag-crash","tag-driving","tag-ex","tag-forced","tag-forces","tag-former","tag-goodwin","tag-her","tag-into","tag-kill","tag-man","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-partner","tag-rage","tag-speed","tag-speeding","tag-strangles","tag-them","tag-threatening","tag-waikato","tag-while"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}