Accused tattooist: 'I'm not the monster you paint me as'

Tattooist Jamie Dean Keremete told the High Court at Rotorua it was his alleged victims who were violent towards him. Photo/File

There have been tense exchanges between a fired-up tattooist and the prosecutor over the man's lengthy criminal history involving women.

They came during the trial in the High Court at Rotorua of Jamie Dean Keremete, 47, who has denied 22 sex and violence charges involving two women.

Crown prosecutor Andy Hill repeatedly challenged Keremete today about his propensity to treat women violently.

The tattooist tersely responded he'd only had accusations made against him by three women out of the 50 he'd been with.

Challenged how he could have had so many partners if he was impotent as he claimed in his testimony, Keremete said that only began when he was with the first complainant.

He agreed he'd been imprisoned for some of the offences but claimed he'd only pleaded guilty as a plea bargain so he'd receive a lighter sentence.

Pressed about his repeated admitted attacks on his first alleged victim which included strangling her, twisting her hair and stomping on her with steel-capped boots, he accused Hill of fabrication.

"I'm not the monster you paint me as. ... I am not the hard man you paint me to be."

Accused of being someone who flipped between two personalities, being loving and caring on one side and threatening, jealous and possessive on the other, Keremete responded: "You have no real evidence against me, that's why you are bringing up my past."

He denied sending his first alleged victim a text threatening to get his "Head Hunter boys" to squash her head in, accusing the prosecutor of only reading what was written on a piece of paper, not the real facts.

"What about what she done to me, I've got the scars to prove it," Keremete retorted.

He didn't accept her evidence that when he'd attempted to rape her she relented because she was scared of getting bashed. He claimed three women and the officer in charge of the case conspired against him.

Earlier, Keremete denied he had followed her into Rotorua's Kuirau Park, where it was alleged he ripped a panic alarm from her neck and punched her while she was pregnant.

Keremete accused the woman of setting up a home invasion.

"I was knocked out by a baseball bat," he testified.

Referring to his second alleged victim, he told of meeting her when she asked him to tattoo her inner thigh.

She'd initiated a sexual liaison with him "but I couldn't perform well because of erectile dysfunction".

He claimed he'd been frightened of her because she was a kickboxer and belonged to a gang.

He insisted he'd never held her against her will, saying when he asked her to leave she punched herself in the face and threatened to slit her throat.

"She'd cut herself with anything sharp she could find on the legs, arms, stomach."

The only violence between them was when he pushed her off him because she'd attempted sex with him against his will.

Questioned about the Samurai sword, he said she'd swung it at him, connecting with his face.

The trial continues.