Shyan Ngaweketuhimata pointed a shotgun at his former partner in front of her children. (File photo)

It was at a remote roadside lookout that Shyan Ngaweketuhimata chose to hold a shotgun to his ex-partner in front of their hysterical young children.

That was after he'd held a screwdriver to her head as she drove, after he'd asked her how she wanted to die, and after he'd make her take all her clothes off and told her he was going to throw her over a waterfall.

Ngaweketuhimata, 33, was travelling with his former partner and their two children, aged three and five, from Auckland to Hastings in April, 2017, after attending the unveiling of a family member's headstone.

Stuff was charged with 17 different offences, including threatening to kill, assault with a weapon, assault with intent to injure and unlawfully discharging a firearm.

As they made their way south his behaviour became increasingly threatening and dangerous.

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He asked her how she wanted to die and said he was going to make her shoot herself. The children, in the rear seats, heard this.

As she pulled out of a petrol station in Taupō, Ngaweketuhimata put a screwdriver to the back of her head, hard enough to cause a cut.

He held the screwdriver to her neck until they reached Waipunga Falls lookout on the Napier-Taupō Road.

GOOGLE The incident occurred at the Waipunga Falls lookout on the Napier-Taupō Rd.

The woman pulled over and ran from the car to get away from Ngaweketuhimata. He chased her with the screwdriver and told her he was going to make her jump off the falls.

The children were hysterical in the car.

Ngaweketuhimata went to the boot of the car, pulled out a shotgun and began to load it with shells from an ammunition belt.

The woman ran away in fear but he caught her. He made her remove her clothes then he pointed the shotgun at her.

She heard a clicking noise but the gun did not go off. He then pointed it in the air and discharged a shot into the air.

After this occurred she was allowed to get dressed and they continued driving. When they got home he became irritated with her so he punched her head until she fell to the ground, at which point he kicked her in the head.

The children were in the same room.

Ngaweketuhimata was charged with 17 different offences, including threatening to kill, assault with a weapon, assault with intent to injure and unlawfully discharging a firearm.

He pleaded guilty to all but two charges of threatening to kill, threatening to kill while using a firearm, breaching a protection order, unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearm.

He was found guilty of all charges at a judge alone trial before Judge Tony Adeane, who sentenced him to six years in jail.

At trial Ngaweketuhimata submitted that the charges of threatening to kill and threatening to kill while using a firearm had only been laid a week before the trial and the victim's delay in reporting them compromised her credibility.

He said the alleged offending was so brazen that someone would have noticed it, and that because he had acknowledged guilt to the other charges he should be believed when he said he was not guilty of these charges.

Judge Adeane rejected Ngaweketuhimata's arguments and said the victim, when giving evidence, had appeared "stoic, sad, and unshaken although showed occasional hesitancy".

Ngaweketuhimata appealed the convictions and sentence, claiming judicial bias, fair trial issues, procedural issues and insufficient reasons given for the findings.

The appeal was heard by Justice Christine Grice in the High Court at Napier earlier this month.

In a recently released decision Justice Grice dismissed the appeals, saying the judge made no error in the sentence and there had not been a miscarriage of justice.

In 2010 Ngaweketuhimata was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment for a raft of burglary charges.

In 2004 he was sentenced to five years in prison on three charges of aggravated robbery, two of kidnapping and one of unlawfully taking a motor vehicle.