{"id":393428,"date":"2026-04-23T08:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/393428\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T08:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:05:09","slug":"nelson-court-judge-jails-jonathon-rogers-over-prolonged-partner-strangling-and-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/393428\/","title":{"rendered":"Nelson court: Judge jails Jonathon Rogers over prolonged partner strangling and assault"},"content":{"rendered":"

He is now on his first warning under the three-strikes law<\/a>, which means any further serious offending would likely lead to harsher penalties.<\/p>\n

\"JonathonJonathon Rogers is now on his first warning under the three-strikes law, which means any further serious offending would likely lead to harsher penalties. Photo \/ Brett Phibbs<\/p>\n

The woman, who sat huddled in a corner of the Nelson District Court<\/a> during today\u2019s sentencing, said in her victim impact statement that Rogers was \u201cnot a bad person\u201d but was widely misunderstood, and that he remained the love of her life.<\/p>\n

Excerpts from the statement were read by Judge David Laurenson, KC, who imposed a police protection order in her favour, despite the pair\u2019s desire to continue a relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m satisfied it\u2019s necessary to protect her,\u201d Judge Laurenson told the police, who had sought the order.<\/p>\n

Remains \u2018high risk to others\u2019<\/p>\n

Rogers had earlier pleaded guilty to an amended charge list which included strangulation, assault with intent to injure, injuring with reckless disregard and assault on a person in a family relationship.<\/p>\n

The pre-sentence process assessed Rogers as remaining a high risk to others until he addressed his alcohol dependency<\/a> and an attitude which \u201csupported violent behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n

A pre-sentence report identified Rogers\u2019 offending was largely alcohol- and drug-fuelled, but time spent in custody had enforced an abstinence which had given him some perspective on the harm caused, and a desire to improve, Judge Laurenson said.<\/p>\n

Knocked unconscious<\/p>\n

The court heard that Rogers and the victim were in a relationship and living together last year when, after Rogers had been drinking, he suddenly punched the woman multiple times in the head.<\/p>\n

The police summary of facts said she was knocked unconscious, but when she came to, he was standing over her, laughing.<\/p>\n

Rogers then smashed the woman to the ground<\/a> and put both his hands around her neck until she was unable to breathe. She managed to crawl to a bedroom and lie face down when Rogers grabbed her by the ears and threw her against a wall.<\/p>\n

She was able to crawl away again before the pair fell asleep, the summary said.<\/p>\n

When she woke up, she asked what had happened and Rogers attacked her again.<\/p>\n

She was grabbed by the throat and held down by her head.<\/p>\n

Afraid he had killed her<\/p>\n

On another occasion, the pair were staying in a Motueka<\/a> campground when Rogers dragged the woman out of her sleeping bag and began punching her until she again lost consciousness.<\/p>\n

Rogers held her, afraid he had killed her, the summary said.<\/p>\n

Later that month, when the pair were at home, Rogers had been drinking and began talking on the phone to his ex-partner.<\/p>\n

The victim became upset, ripped the phone from his hand and smashed it on the ground before packing her bags in an effort to leave.<\/p>\n

Rogers attacked her again, leaving her with multiple bruises and a concussion.<\/p>\n

Rogers said in relation to one of the assaults that he had \u201cno recollection\u201d of what had happened until the next day.<\/p>\n

Judge Laurenson noted he hadn\u2019t tried to minimise what happened, had spoken of how he had failed his partner, and was sorry for the harm caused.<\/p>\n

\u2018Severe\u2019 substance use disorder<\/p>\n

He said an alcohol and drug report presented Rogers as having a long-standing history of alcohol and methamphetamine abuse, to the degree he was assessed as having a \u201csevere\u201d substance use disorder.<\/p>\n

If he were released without structured support, he was at risk of relapse, Judge Laurenson said.<\/p>\n

He said the victim\u2019s statement noted Rogers needed help.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not my enemy, he\u2019s the love of my life and he needs help, so I\u2019m asking you to give him that help,\u201d the victim wrote.<\/p>\n

Rogers said he \u201csat with great anguish and sorrow\u201d that he was unable to be with the woman in her time of need.<\/p>\n

In sentencing him, Judge Laurenson said the victim was vulnerable, there was a clear physical disparity, and an element of home invasion had occurred in that the sanctity of the victim\u2019s home had been breached.<\/p>\n

From an adjusted three-year starting point on the lead offence of strangulation,<\/a> Judge Laurenson arrived at 23 months in prison on all charges after discounts for guilty pleas and Rogers\u2019 motivation to address issues linked to his offending.<\/p>\n

He was granted leave to apply for home detention if a suitable address was found.<\/p>\n

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ\u2019s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government, for the Nelson Mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He is now on his first warning under the three-strikes law, which means any further serious offending would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,1763,17704,1349,181,14736,51030,27343,203286,3958,91,111,43,139,69,1523,5502,56268,6289,34118,544,68703,1961,8496,13118,1455],"class_list":["post-393428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-article","tag-assault","tag-court","tag-details","tag-domestic","tag-includes","tag-jails","tag-jonathon","tag-judge","tag-nelson","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-partner","tag-prolonged","tag-readers","tag-rogers","tag-some","tag-strangling","tag-this","tag-upset","tag-violence","tag-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393428","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=393428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}