She claimed he strangled her after she had posted a bikini selfie he didn’t like while on a trip to Bali.
“He grabbed me by the neck, and I think he jammed my arm in the door and I hit my head on the doorframe and I scratched him at some point during this,” she said.
“I was scared.”
Social media was allegedly an ongoing issue for the pair, and the complainant said she “had to delete my social media to prove to him I wasn’t being a ‘ho’.”
When she did have social media, she claimed he would check her follower count “every second day”.
Later on the Bali trip, the woman alleged he assaulted her again.
“He strangled me, and he put a pillow over my face because he wanted me to stop talking,” she alleged.
After the holiday she told the court she reported the alleged incidents to police.
“I wanted him to know that I wasn’t kidding when I said ‘you can’t do that', and it is serious, and it wasn’t my fault.”
After the man found out about the report, she told the jury he said she would be “so f***ed” without him.
“I would be nothing without him”, she alleged he said.
At the time the woman said she chose not to take the complaint further.
During the relationship she said she felt like there was an unfair power dynamic between the pair because of his job and because he was more than 20 years her senior.
She said his role as a musician impacted their relationship.
“He would always tie [his prominent music career] in with, ‘You’ll never do better than me‘.”
In her opening address, prosecutor Emma Barnes told the jury the man was a well-connected musician.
“Very charming, very popular, very talented, very articulate.”
Barnes said he was more than two decades the woman’s senior and she may have “idolised” him.
“[She] was being physically and psychologically abused by this man,” she alleged.
Defence lawyer Susan Gray said the Crown had portrayed her client as “egotistical”, but she said the physical aggression was actually initiated and spurred on by his former partner.
She alleged the man had tried to leave the “toxic” relationship several times and even sought professional help to try to manage the alleged aggression from the woman.
Gray said he only used physical force against her in self-defence.
One of the assault charges specifies a drink bottle was used as a weapon and another charge cites him allegedly biting her.
The musician has also been charged with impeding her normal breathing by applying pressure to her throat. Threatening to kill and threatening to do grievous bodily harm charges were also laid.
Three of the charges were for crimes that allegedly occurred on Boxing Day 2023.
The assault charges where a weapon is not specified carry a maximum of two years’ imprisonment, the two that include allegations of a weapon hold a maximum of five years in prison.
The charges for threatening to kill, threatening to do grievous bodily harm and impeding normal breathing each carry a maximum of five years’ imprisonment.
Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers social issues including sexual assault, workplace misconduct, media, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020.
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