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Women's Refuge missed out on thousands of dollars from a charity luncheon to honour rugby league star Ruben Wiki as fallout continues over the Tony Veitch affair.
Wiki had wanted to donate some of the proceeds from a $170-a-head gala luncheon held in Auckland in his honour last week to Women's Refuge, but organisers put the kibosh on that proposal because of a potential conflict with the event's main sponsor, Radio Sport - Veitch's former employer.
Women's Refuge took Veitch to task two months ago after he admitted "lashing out" at former partner Kristin Dunne-Powell, saying there could never be an excuse for violence against women.
It was also critical of Veitch's decision to pay Dunne-Powell a $150,000 settlement in return for her signing a confidentiality agreement. Ironically, as part of that settlement Veitch had to donate $5000 to a women's anti-violence group.
Veitch resigned from Television New Zealand and Radio Sport, which is part of the Radio Network, weeks after the allegations were made public.
A fortnight ago he was charged with six counts of assault on a female and one of injuring with reckless disregard. He has said he will vigorously defend the charges.
Wiki declined to speak to the Herald on Sunday about the controversy, but it is understood that over the years he has been a regular contributor to the coffers of Women's Refuge. Money raised from Tuesday's charity event ended up going to 274 Youth Core, a south Auckland organisation working with disadvantaged youth.
When spoken to a week ago, event spokesman Peter 'The Mad Butcher' Leitch said claims pressure was brought to bear on Wiki to drop Women's Refuge as his charity of choice were "not exactly true".
Radio Sport boss Bill Francis said he was unaware of the matter and referred questions to Radio Network chief executive John McElhinney, who did not return Herald on Sunday calls.
Refuge head Heather Henare said she was extremely disappointed about what had occurred.
She said while it was a shame it had missed out on potentially thousands of dollars it would not be softening its stance over Veitch. She had spoken up at the time to make it clear that regardless of whether or not you were a celebrity, violence against women could never be condoned.
Now Women's Refuge was being punished which was not right, she added. "This was not a personal thing between Women's Refuge and Tony Veitch. The general public expects us to take a stand over this type of thing."
