The search for three missing climbers on Aoraki/Mt Cook remains on hold and Sevu Reece has been discharged without conviction following an incident at a Cup Day party last year.
An Auckland businessman accused of strangling and repeatedly assaulting his girlfriend after a night out two years ago says he simply bundled her out of his apartment in an act of self-defence as she lashed out.
The successful business figure with interim name suppression is on trial in the Auckland District Court after pleading not guilty to three charges of assault and one of strangulation stemming from the fracas in his apartment late one night in March 2022.
His lawyer Ron Mansfield KC opened the defence case on Wednesday before the man entered the witness box to describe the background to his relationship with the young woman and their life in Auckland high society.
The jury heard he paid the woman a salary, though she worked for him only intermittently, so she could show a regular income to obtain a mortgage and invest in property.
Their relationship started happily in late 2019 and they enjoyed the first lockdown together, the man said. They would regularly socialise with other young high-flying couples.
But it began to sour, and the woman would sometimes attack him out of the blue and begin biting and scratching him, he alleged.
Mansfield, in his opening address to the jury before calling his client as the first witness, said while it was not an issue on nearly the same scale as male-on-female violence, it was a misconception to think women don’t assault men.
Ron Mansfield KC is representing the man in his trial in the Auckland District Court. File photo / Michael Craig
The complainant in this trial had a history of becoming intoxicated, lashing out and biting or scratching her then-partner, Mansfield said.
It had happened again on the night in question, and the man had used force to restrain his then partner and bundle her out of the apartment, he said.
He had used an appropriate level of force for self-defence under the law, and did not simply walk away because when he had tried that in the past, the woman had followed him into the street in a state of distress, the KC said.
His former partner earlier said in evidence the man was grossly intoxicated and became upset she had taken him home from drinks at the apartment of a friend, a prominent Kiwi business figure.
He then dragged her out of the apartment and threw her into a corridor, slamming the door, returning once to push her to the ground again, she alleged.
Mansfield said the woman was goading the man before biting and scratching him, something she admitted having done previously.
The defendant forcefully removed her from his apartment to prevent the woman from continuing to attack him, Mansfield said.
He said an abrasion on her neck, suggested by the Crown to be evidence of strangulation, was in fact a minor and “non-specific” injury sustained when the man was forced to remove her from his apartment.
Mansfield said that when his client eventually let the woman in after she spent some time banging on his door, she bit him again, forcing him to close the door once more.
An Auckland businessman accused of assaulting a woman in March 2022 sits in court on the first day of his trial in the Auckland District Court on November 26, 2024. He lost suppression at the start of his trial but still cannot be named pending an appeal. Photo / George Block
The KC said the woman had repeatedly bitten and been violent with him during their tumultuous relationship.
The woman, during her days in the witness box, acknowledged biting the man on the thumb but said she did so in self-defence during a chaotic assault while being dragged out of the apartment.
“I was doing anything that I could in order to stop what was happening,” she said.
She acknowledged, during cross-examination, having previously bitten the man prior to his alleged attack.
But she had only done so during other physical altercations with him in the context of repeated abuse, she said.
“If there are any incidents where I’ve lashed out it’s been as a result of violence, verbal abuse or psychological abuse,” she said.
“I don’t think that some of the things that happened during the relationship are my proudest moments. But I think when you are subject to that kind of abuse it’s unlikely that you’re not going to react.”
During his time in the witness box on Wednesday afternoon, the man rejected several aspects of the complainant’s account.
He said he was tired and ready to go home before they left his friend’s place, and did not recall any issues arising between the pair.
The accused said he and the woman had enjoyed a largely happy relationship and he was supporting her forays into business and property investment.
But there were times when she would lash out at him, sometimes in public, and seemingly out of the blue, he said.
“She would try to scratch or bite me or hit me,” he said.
The man will continue giving evidence on Thursday.
George Block is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on police, the courts, prisons and defence. He joined the Herald in 2022 and has previously worked at Stuff in Auckland and the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin.
