KEY POINTS:
I don't knwo Tony Veitch well but he's a colleague and I enjoy working with him. I would never have believed him capable of assaulting anyone but he says he did and it's true. Now he's suffering the consequences.
Derek Fox has also alluded to some issues of his own in the past, for which he was sorry and had resolved. He believes he can still be a Maori Party candidate and the Maori Party feels the same way.
In the recent past, famous sportsmen in trouble for assaulting women have been given name suppression and allowed to continue with their lives.
And then there was Tuvaluan overstayer Senee Niusila, a kidney dialysis patient allowed to walk free without conviction after assaulting his wife twice. There doesn't seem to be a consistent way of dealing with men who belt women.
Perhaps that reflects the complexities of human relationships; perhaps it's because judges have different views on domestic violence or perhaps because the court of public opinion has its own standards.
If everybody who is violent towards their partners suffers the same consequences as Veitch, domestic violence will be seen as the heinous crime it is.
