The jury was asked to consider verdicts on 78 charges but two were withdrawn at the start of the trial and six further charges were withdrawn yesterday as a result of insufficient evidence.
Paula Toleafoa's lawyer, Steven Lack, opened the defence case yesterday by calling her as his first witness. He said she didn't have to give evidence but she wanted to tell her side of the story.
She said she was receiving ACC compensation as a result of suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the beatings she received from her husband.
Through tears, Paula Toleafoa talked about how her husband started beating her up months after they moved in together in Rotorua.
They moved to Auckland when he got a contract to wash houses there.
"I was afraid to leave him because I thought I would die. All of the people you'd see on Facebook and television (who had been killed by their partners), I was worried it would be me.
"I lived in fear for my life and my children's lives."
She said her husband would physically and psychologically abuse her, including hitting her until she was knocked out.
She said he would cut her off from her friends and family and mentally as well.
"I used to be really sharp.
"It was easier to stay with him so that I wouldn't end up smashed on the road."
Earlier, Crown prosecutor Anna McConachy produced evidence from Customs New Zealand that showed the couple left New Zealand or arrived in New Zealand 34 times between 2014 and 2018.
Under questioning from Lack, Paula Toleafoa said her husband would "love bomb" her when he wanted to make amends.
She said he wasn't always "violent and ugly" and the guy she married could be loving and kind.
"He'd tell me he wants to take me overseas ... I didn't want those things, I wanted a life without violence ... He would try to love bomb me with trips and stuff like that. He was always the best version of himself on those trips and wasn't angry."
The couple separated for a period in 2016 while living in Auckland. She said she wasn't sure where he moved to but she stayed in their Auckland home. She told him she wanted to get a flatmate in to help pay the bills but he refused to let her.
She said he didn't want anyone else near her or living with her.
Instead, he would give her cash each week to help with expenses and she assumed that money was coming from his house-washing business.
She said he would also make a lot of cash by buying and selling cars and she described him as a "hustler" who would make a profit from buying and selling things like mag wheels.
The trial, which is before Judge Phillip Cooper, was adjourned at 4.30pm today until a Covid-19 test result has been returned relating to someone connected to the trial.
Judge Cooper told the jury the person was in close contact with a person who was at a location of interest and the test needed to be taken as a precaution.
The trial continues.
