‘She was powerless’: Hamilton man jailed for terrorising heavily pregnant partner

Monday, 15 June 2026

Warning: This story contains details of family violence that some readers may find distressing

For months, Tyronne Young subjected his pregnant partner and their infant child to a saga of intimidation and violence, including beating and choking her when she was heavily pregnant.

That saga came to its conclusion in the Hamilton District Court when Tyronne Kenneth Philip Young was jailed for three years and 10 months on a raft of charges.

They included multiple counts of assault with a weapon, strangulation, assaulting a child, assault with intent to injure and threatening to kill.

In February 2025 - the time of the first incident recorded in the police summary of facts on his case - Young and his victim were living in Pukete, Hamilton.

She was then 27 weeks pregnant.

On that day the pair got into a heated argument that moved from the bedroom to the lounge, where Young began punching the woman in the stomach multiple times.

He then hit her on her legs with a dog collar numerous times and also picked up a ladle and used it to strike her with.

As the woman curled over on the floor, attempting to protect herself and her baby from him, Young continued to hit her with various objects.

Eventually, she managed to get to her feet. However Young then got her in a chokehold while standing behind her. Such was the force he used, her feet were lifted off the ground and she was unable to breathe for about 30 to 60 seconds.

“Why don’t you f…ing listen, c…? Why don’t you just shut your mouth?” he ranted at her.

The victim was left with bruising on her neck and square-shaped bruises on her legs caused by the dog collar for days afterwards.

Another incident, on September 1 last year, followed an argument about moving their child from breast milk to formula.

Young began punching the young mother about 10 times in the head, even as she was holding their infant daughter.

As she tried to move the child out of the way, he struck the girl in her cheek.

In spite of this, his violence did not cease.

Young went into the kitchen and grabbed a pair of scissors. He approached the woman with the scissors open and the blades protruding from between his knuckles.

He resumed punching his partner in her legs and back and then stabbed her in the stomach so hard that the scissor blades pierced her clothes and her skin.

In another incident two weeks later, also at their house in Pukete, he struck her in the head a number of times with a stereo speaker, knocking her to the ground.

As she was lying dazed on the kitchen floor he stomped twice on her head. When she tried to escape he punched her on her ear and nose, causing a blood nose.

He began mocking her at the sight of her bleeding - and then headbutted her.

“I’m sick of hurting myself teaching you a lesson,” he told her, after the headbutt.

The woman ran out the back of the house and fled down the road - however, Young was soon chasing her in the car, with the baby inside the vehicle.

He found the woman at an intersection and threatened to withhold access to the child unless she got into the vehicle.

Reluctantly, she complied.

Once back at their house, the woman began speaking to a neighbour. Young saw this, and accelerated the vehicle hard in their direction, stopping just short of them. This caused the woman to grab onto the neighbour in fear.

Young told her to go back into the house or he would kill her and take her baby, or words to that effect. She managed to run away again, although Young again chased her on foot for a time.

Soon after the police arrived. Young told them to “get f…ed” and drove off in his car.

In court on Friday, Judge Kim Saunders told Young his violence was “callous, cruel and malicious”.

“Without doubt you wanted to control your partner. She was powerless to your violence … It’s hard to escape the conclusion you enjoyed the power it gave you.

“She was traumatised … terrified of you. I suspect that is an understatement.”

Young’s counsel in court, Abby Brownlie, said there had not been “an intentional application of force against the child”, and for this he was very sorry.

His own upbringing had been “incredibly traumatic” she said, and this had formed a causal nexus for his offending, she said.

In sentencing Young, Judge Saunders also granted a protection order for his victim, as well as an order preventing him from having access to any kind of firearm.