By Tracy Neal, Open Justice reporter of 
An argument over unpaid rent turned violent, leaving a woman with injuries after she was hit then strangled by Mathew Linch. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
A woman was hit over the head and strangled after an argument over unpaid rent turned violent.
Mathew David Linch then threatened to burn down her house in a quiet rural valley north of Nelson.
The 42-year-old has now been sent to prison for more than two years on charges that arose from those events in March 2024, plus further violence charges from later in the year while he was on bail.
On the latter occasion, Linch headbutted the woman and punched her in the head on the side of a road after he yanked her from a car.
A member of the public stopped to help and drove the woman to safety, with Linch following until they arrived at the police station in central Nelson.
Judge Tony Snell said in the Nelson District Court it was concerning Linch had not been sentenced immediately on the earlier charges and that matters had been put off long enough that he reoffended.
Despite earlier denials he was at fault, Linch admitted charges of injuring with intent to injure, assault with intent to injure and assault for the offending in October 2024.
He had earlier admitted charges including strangulation and assault on a person in a family relationship, plus threatening language, which arose from the argument over the rent in March.
He was also convicted on a shoplifting charge that followed Linch driving into a petrol station in Timaru on the afternoon of 8 September last year, filling his car with $80 worth of petrol and then driving off without paying.
A fight over rent money
Police said Linch and the woman had known each other for about two years and had lived at the rural address, but on the evening of 11 March 2024, an argument began over Linch's refusal to pay his portion of the rent.
Linch became enraged and hit the woman multiple times on her head, police said.
The fight continued into the kitchen where Linch approached the woman from behind and put his hands around her neck.
He tightened his grip on her throat to the extent she felt suffocated and could barely breathe.
Linch then dragged her into the lounge where he threw her against a toy box.
The woman received injuries to her head, face, arm and neck and items were damaged in the fight, police said.
Before leaving, he threatened to burn down the house.
Linch told police he had held the woman around the throat and that he threatened to burn her house, but denied hitting her.
While he was on bail, Linch and the woman were in a car when he pulled over and stopped on a layby and the pair began to fight.
Linch got out, walked to the victim's door and forcefully tried pulling her out of the vehicle by her arms.
He then headbutted her multiple times to the forehead, causing a large lump and swelling, the summary of facts said.
Linch then punched her multiple times in the head, which caused her ear to bleed.
The woman fell to the ground and a member of the public stopped and drove her to safety.
Linch got back in the car and followed, before the woman was driven to the police station.
Her injuries included a large lump to her forehead from the headbutt, an open wound to her left ear from the punches, and cuts and bruising to her arms.
Linch denied headbutting the woman and told police she had been the aggressor and not him.
Judge Snell said Linch had come before the court with no relevant convictions, but three convictions for dishonesty, for driving while suspended and a breach of community work.
"These are your first violence offences and you had been conviction-free since about 2011," Judge Snell said.
He said a pre-sentence report noted Linch had been a methamphetamine user but was in remission.
Judge Snell said it provided a clue to Linch's conduct, which was not usual behaviour.
"We see time and again, week in and week out, people like you without this type of history committing quite violent offending.
"We look at their backgrounds and find that they are using methamphetamine and it leads to these violent outbursts as you have had," he said.
From a starting point of three and a half years for all offending, with an uplift of three months for the offending while on bail, Judge Snell arrived at a prison term of two years and six months, after discounts for Linch's guilty pleas, for rehabilitation steps taken so far and time spent on electronic bail before sentencing.
His release conditions would be determined by the Parole Board.
* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.
