Olympian pleased with verdicts

File photo / Greg Bowker

A New Zealand Olympian faces a possible retrial on two charges of raping and assaulting his wife after a jury failed to reach verdicts following four days of deliberation at the High Court in Auckland.

The jury found the man, whose name and occupation are suppressed, not guilty of two other charges of raping his wife, abducting her and injuring her with intent.

He was remanded on bail until next month when the Crown is expected to say whether a retrial will be sought.

His lawyer, Marie Mortimer, told NZPA outside court that her client was pleased with the not guilty verdicts, but would not comment further while the case was still active.

The jurors - six men and six women - were given directions on reaching majority verdicts after indicating just before lunch they could not reach unanimous verdicts on all the charges.

During the trial Crown prosecutor Rachael Reed said that the accused and the alleged victim became engaged a short time after meeting and had a brief happy period in their marriage before the violence started.

On one occasion he strangled her for 20 or 30 seconds in their hallway until she went limp.

As she lay in bed, in pain, he allegedly began sweet talking her and asked her to have sex with him. When she refused, he raped he for the first time, Ms Reed said.

She hid her injuries and lied to doctors about how she got them for fear her husband would find out.

The man's lawyer, Hugh Leabourn, said there was more than one side to the story.

While it was accepted that the accused got physical with his wife, it was never to the extent that she alleged.

While the couple had their fair share of troubles, they were also very loving and caring of each other and their relationship was not always punctuated by violence, he said.

The man denied that he had smashed her head into her steering wheel, or punched her as he smothered her face with a pillow, or forced her to perform oral sex, as was alleged.

The trial lasted five days, before the jury retired late on Friday afternoon.

- NZPA