Kristin Dunne-Powell's account of Veitch assault

Kristin Dunne-Powell. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Kristin Dunne-Powell's account of the night Tony Veitch assaulted her can be revealed for the first time.

A confidentiality agreement signed after Veitch paid her $150,000 compensation previously prevented Dunne-Powell from speaking to journalists about the assault.

As Veitch pleaded guilty to injuring his former partner with reckless disregard in April, Dunne-Powell was not required to give evidence in court.

Veitch has publicly stated he "lashed out" and kicked her once in the back on January 29, 2006 - a single act that was out of character.

But the Herald has obtained Dunne-Powell's statement to the police under the Official Information Act. The statement details her allegations of what happened that night and other acts of domestic violence.

After a tumultuous relationship between 2002 and 2006, she decided to move out of Veitch's St Heliers home and had packed her belongings in cardboard boxes.

She arrived to collect her possessions at 7.30pm on the Sunday night, but ended up having a glass of wine and talking with Veitch.

"Tony was telling me again how he would go for counselling, that he knew he was screwed up and had issues, and that he knew he didn't treat me right," Dunne-Powell told police.

"We had a cuddle, I think we kissed, we were being intimate, loving. We didn't sleep together, but the mood was pretty much the same for about half an hour or so."

Later that evening at 10pm, Veitch received a text message on his phone. He assured Dunne-Powell it wasn't from another woman but she checked the text message when he went to the bathroom.

Dunne-Powell said the message was from a girl and that Veitch "hit the roof" when she confronted him.

"He was yelling and screaming, and he backed me up against the wall beside the TV unit. He was standing as close as he could to my face, yelling down at my head, I could feel how hot his breath was," said Dunne-Powell.

Backed up against the wall, Dunne-Powell said she slid down and went to dive to the left.

"As I got to the crouch position to crawl the gap to the door, I felt two or three kicks land right in my right lower back. They forced an enormous scream out of me from the pain, and I heard a crack," Dunne-Powell told Detective Kellie Bissett.

"I collapsed face down on the floor. I was absolutely sobbing. Screaming as well."

Veitch kept asking if she was okay, put a packet of frozen peas on her back and a pillow under her head.

"I couldn't do anything but lie on the floor and cry. He stayed sitting on the floor next to me, trying to encourage me to get on the bed."

According to her statement, Dunne-Powell fell asleep on the floor unable to get into the bed. When she woke up, it was dark and Veitch was asleep in the bed. Dunne-Powell crawled into the bed and fell asleep, but woke later needing to use the bathroom.

After crawling to sit on the toilet, Dunne-Powell fell over in the bathroom according to her statement, banging her head on the cabinet, then the tiled floor.

"I really thought I was going to die. I knew something was seriously wrong," Dunne-Powell told police.

"I said to Tony 'You have to get me some help, you have to get me to hospital, you have to call an ambulance'."

Instead of calling an ambulance to his home, Veitch drove her to Auckland Hospital in his Radio Sport Ford XR8.

"He was also repeating, 'What are we going to say, what are we going to say?' I don't know if it was his or my suggestion, but we agreed that we would say it was an accident," Dunne-Powell said to police.

"I remember whoever was on staff recognising Tony... Tony was still with me when they asked how it happened. I think I said I slipped on the stairs, and Tony elaborated and said as the steps in the house were wet, I fell. That we had just been playing around."

Hospital records show the pair arrived at 4am, Veitch left for his breakfast Radio Sport show which started at 6am, then returned at 10am.

Dunne-Powell was released from hospital with Veitch.

"I was now able to walk gently on my own due to the pain relief, and I was sent away by the hospital with the thought that it would get better on its own," she said.

"At this point, I had no idea that I was to discover within the week that my back was fractured."

She drove to work the following day but went home because of the pain, where her mother came to take care of her.

Within a week of the kicking, Dunne-Powell was re-examined by a doctor and told her back had been fractured.

She told Veitch of the fractures and took six weeks off work, returning in March, then taking another month off.

Dunne-Powell and Veitch remained in touch after the January assault. "We spoke, text and occasionally met," Dunne-Powell told police. "We had a history, so it wasn't a clean cut after the incident. Even though it happened, initially I still thought I loved him."