A woman who bit her neighbour’s ear and slammed her head into concrete has avoided further time in jail.
Emma-Lisa Eronen, 38, was sentenced in the Supreme Court on September 25 after pleading guilty to wounding, two counts of assault and assaulting and resisting a police officer.
The court heard the woman, who had known Eronen for years, bought her groceries on the morning of September 10, 2024, before the pair spent hours drinking whisky together.
When the woman got up to leave Eronen’s home, she told Eronen to start taking care of her family.
Eronen then pushed her down the stairs, pinned her to the ground and bit her left ear, holding on with her teeth as the woman screamed “stop”.
She slammed the woman’s head into the concrete and kicked her in the ribs and head as a neighbour repeatedly told her to stop.
The woman suffered a broken ankle and extensive damage to her ear, which needed surgery.
After her arrest, Eronen told police she had no choice but to bite the woman’s ear because she feared for her life.
But in an interview with police the next day, she said she “f–ked up” because she was drunk.
“I don’t even know why I f–king attacked the c–t, cause she mouths off all the time. I don’t know. I don’t know,” Eronen said.
At the Hobart Police Station, she kicked a police officer twice and dug her fingernails into the officer’s wrist.
The woman told the court in a victim impact statement that she now feels constantly on edge, is unable to work and at times cannot afford the treatment she needs.
Eronen’s lawyer told the court she had experienced abuse, neglect and violence since childhood and had recently cut back her drinking and stopped using cannabis.
She has a 2021 conviction for committing an act intended to cause bodily harm.
In a report to the court, a forensic psychiatrist said she has complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and that a dissociative state was more likely than alcohol to have driven the attack.
Justice Stephen Estcourt said he had “a little difficulty” accepting that opinion after watching police body-worn camera footage, but had no contrary evidence.
He said returning Eronen to prison would be “counterproductive and not in the interests of the wider community”.
Home detention or community service could have been options, he said, but a pre-sentence report found her unsuitable for both.
Eronen was jailed for 15 months, backdated to August 12, with the remainder suspended for two years. She had already spent 44 days in custody.
She was also placed on a two-year community corrections order, which requires her to undergo drug and alcohol treatment and psychological assessment as directed.
