KEY POINTS:
A Whakatane doctor whose husband is on trial for assaulting her 13 times, told a court yesterday that he punched, kicked and slapped her sometimes twice a week, especially in the later part of their 10-year marriage.
Deborah Hilterman was giving evidence in Tauranga District Court against Adrian Hilterman, 55, whose occupation is suppressed.
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Paul Mabey QC, Dr Hilterman told of one alleged attack when she was 37 weeks pregnant with the second of the couple's three children.
"He was brutal, insensitive and callous enough to assault a pregnant lady - is that what you are saying?" asked Mr Mabey.
Dr Hilterman: Yes.
She described numerous punches to the head on another occasion, splitting her scalp and "shattering my hair ornament".
Mr Mabey: Your husband is a big man - 100-plus kilograms - and you are a small woman. I suggest 15 brutal punches to the head didn't happen.
Dr Hilterman: Yes it did, Mr Mabey.
Mr Mabey: Afterward you just get up and get on with life, do you?
Dr Hilterman: Effectively, yes.
Being a doctor, she looked after herself.
Asked why she did not leave such an abusive relationship, Dr Hilterman said part of the reason was that her husband could be very caring.
"There were some good times."
When Mr Mabey suggested the attack when she was pregnant, which was followed by an emergency caesarean, did not happen, the witness replied: "That is rubbish because it did."
She admitted sometimes she would shout at the accused and "go on" at him when she felt he was not being supportive or would not communicate with her.
Once last year Hilterman chased her around the car with a fish filleting knife. Another time he came at her with an angle grinder, she said.
Asked if she had been fearful throughout her marriage, Dr Hilterman said: "You walk on eggshells. You learn to read the circumstances. Sometimes you don't do it right. But it wasn't all bad."
She said she would often to have bruises all over her body, usually where they would not be visible, but had never suffered broken bones.
Dr Hilterman agreed that her husband had called her a "nasty, vindictive, controlling woman".
The case, before Judge Robert Spear and a jury, continues.
- NZPA
