The High Court trial highlights the horrors and reality of domestic violence in New Zealand. Photo / NZ Herald
The High Court trial highlights the horrors and reality of domestic violence in New Zealand. Photo / NZ Herald
Warning: Graphic content.
A victim of an abusive husband, described as living the lifestyle of Once Were Warriors character Jake "the Muss" Heke, has recalled her life under the man's decade plus violent reign.
She recalled the horrific level of abuse while giving evidence at her son's murder trial.
The young man, who has interim name suppression, is charged with murdering his father when he stabbed him six times during a violent confrontation at a South Auckland home last year.
Yesterday, in the High Court at Auckland before a jury and Justice Ailsa Duffy, the trial began.
Several suppression orders prevent media from revealing certain details about the killing.
The accused, who is in his 20s, accepts killing his father, in his 40s, but argues his actions were justified as he attempted to protect himself and his family.
Today, the defendant's mother spoke of how she had been with her late husband for about two decades. They moved to Auckland with their children a few years ago, but she left the city after her husband was killed.
"It was hard, at the time he was hardly ever there," she said recalling her marriage. "I was just at home waiting with the kids most of the time. It was hard, I had to put food on the table."
She told the court her husband would accuse her of "going out and sleeping around" and was involved in affairs with his family members.
"[He'd] give me hidings for it," she said, trying to hold back tears.
"Until I started bleeding and then he'd stop - I guess he thought it as seeing that he'd done his job."
Her children were also witnesses to the abusive relationship from a young age, which has left lingering consequences, she explained.
"I tried not to let them see it ... I would just take them away, take them to friends for them to look after them for a little bit."
During one episode of violence, the father came home and threw his family in their car and drove them away from the house.
"[He was] going on about how I was unfaithful and all this ... [he] gave me a good hiding up there in front of the kids," she told the court, her son also crying in the dock.
"[He] threw me back in the car and said he was going to take me somewhere else and do the same thing. I jumped out of the car while it was moving, I was that scared."
She said her son was about 12 at the time and watched as his father punched and kicked his mother.
"As they started getting older he started getting a little violent towards them."
Justice Ailsa Duffy. Photo / Greg Bowker
However, she said, the father wouldn't strike his daughter.
"When it came to our daughter, she was the only one to stop him in his tracks.
"He didn't want his daughter to see him as a bad guy, but the boys - he was really hard on [them]."
The father had spent a period in prison and when released was angry that his son, the accused, didn't know who his father was, the court heard.
"[The father would] just abuse him, verbally, say that he wasn't his son, that he belonged to someone else," the mother, dressed in black, said as she recalled a painful past.
She added that her son's father would grab him, slap him about, and "boot his arse".
"As [the son] got older the assaults got worse," she said.
"I think [the father] started seeing it as a bit of a challenge as [the son] got older.
"[The father] grabbed [the son] and headbutted him in the face and almost broke his nose," she said, remembering a violent scene when her son was in his late teens.
Earlier in the trial, Crown prosecutor Gareth Kayes told the court that the defendant had stabbed his father several times, including the fatal strike to his chest, which penetrated the father's heart.
The son's defence team, led by Denise Wallwork, said the father was "a monster" who "terrorised his family, both emotionally and physically".
The father, the defence claimed, was akin to a film character which epitomises the worst of domestic violence in New Zealand, Jake "the Muss".
Kayes explained that the father was also a drug user, describing him as a "bad man".
On the night of the alleged murder, Kayes explained, the father had seriously assaulted his wife, punching her several times to the face and kicking her.
The mother fled to her son's home.
However, Kayes said the father made his way to the house and yelled from outside, damaging his son's car, and seemingly wishing to provoke a confrontation.
The mother told the court her husband was "banging on the windows" and attempted to kick-in the front door.
The son attempted to confront his father, but other family members intervened and police were called.
"He was scared, I think he thought he had to try and protect us from his father," the mother said.
But, before police arrived, the son left the home with a knife in-hand.
The father was then found lying on the home's deck. He'd been stabbed and was bleeding to death.
During his police interview, the son said his father had come "out of the dark" and punched him on the left side of the head, knocking him off the deck.
"Don't get me wrong here, [the father] had been nasty and hostile to the defendant and his family, particularly to [his wife]," Kayes said.
