Mother of two Bridget Simmonds suffered multiple injuries from Samuel Pou leading up to her disappearance.
Mother of two Bridget Simmonds suffered multiple injuries from Samuel Pou leading up to her disappearance.
WARNING: This article deals with graphic domestic violence and may be upsetting to some readers.
The violent history of a man accused of murdering his girlfriend was laid out in court in what the Crown says shows a person who has a tendency to fly into a blind rage.
Samuel Hemara Pou, 60, is on retrial for the alleged murder of Bridget Simmonds, a mother of two, who was found buried in Parakao, Whangārei, in June 2020.
He has admitted to inflicting a brutal assault on her, resulting in her death, but he denies that there was murderous intent in his actions.
When the trial began earlier this week, one juror was released due to a potential conflict of interest and a panel of 11 proceeded to hear the Crown’s case before Justice Tracey Walker in the High Court at Whangārei.
They were advised the case was a retrial and warned by the judge not to make assumptions as to the reasons why and to base their verdicts only on the evidence presented in court.
The Crown read details of a number of previous offences of domestic violence dating back to 1995 including injuring with intent to injure, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and threats to kill.
Justice Walker told the jury the Crown must still prove the necessary intent for murder and although he made threats to kill his previous partner, it was not evidence of an intention to kill Simmonds.
Samuel Pou is on retrial for alleged murder. Photo / Tania Whyte
“[The] Crown says evidence shows a tendency to have a particular state of mind when he attacks his partners, he is in a blind rage.
“The defence position is this evidence does not demonstrate the tendency and the evidence is not relevant.
“You must not reason because he accepted he’s guilty [of these charges] he must also be guilty of murder, you can not use evidence in that way,” Justice Walker warned the jury.
In 1995, a previous girlfriend told Pou she was leaving him, which she thought he accepted and went to have a bath before leaving.
While in the bath, Pou punched her to the forehead and pushed her head under the water saying, “This is the only way you will leave me.”
Between December 2016 and March 2017, Pou was living in the cabin on the Wilson Rd property with another girlfriend and after a night of drinking, punched her between the eyes causing immediate blood flow from her nose.
In further assaults on the same victim, Pou delivered blows to her ribs and punches to her head.
That girlfriend would escape Pou one night while he was drinking and never return.
Simmonds moved into Pou's cabin located in Parakao in 2019. Photo / Supplied
When Simmonds met Pou in 2018, she quickly agreed to move into his Wilson Rd cabin but by January 2019, she was receiving injuries from beatings by him including a laceration to her ear that required stitches.
A month later, Simmonds suffered another brutal assault by him. This time it left her with a loss of vision and a ripped cornea.
Pou accused Simmonds of cheating, pushing her onto the bed and gauging both her eyes with his thumbs while straddling her.
When doctors examined Simmonds, her left cornea was ripped and hanging from her eye and police officer Joanne Rowse gave evidence this week of what she witnessed when she arrived on the scene.
“It was clear she had a serious injury, her left eye was quite swollen, she couldn’t open it and it was weeping,” Rowse said.
The jury was shown a booklet of photos of Simmonds with bruising to her arms.
Rowe described the injuries as, “bruises on bruises, some looked like older bruises and some were quite fresh.”
Simmonds took refuge with her mother in Kerikeri following this assault but returned to Whangārei days later when she disappeared.
The trial continues.
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/Ngātiwai/Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked freelance in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.
