Man found guilty of serious charges of physical and sexual violence after trial in Superior Court

A man was found guilty of eight serious counts of physical and sexual violence after a trial in Auckland High Court this week.

The man, whose name is deleted, had denied the charges: two of rape, three of assault, two of assault with a weapon and one of death threat.

This week, Crown Prosecutor Fiona Culliney told the court that the defendant continuously manipulated and abused the plaintiff during their short relationship.

The prosecutor said the strength of the Crown’s case was based on the detailed statements of the woman and on a letter she wrote in 2017.

Culliney said the victim filed a police report when the relationship ended in April of that year.

Defense attorney Belinda Sellars QC previously told the court that it was clear that her client had treated the plaintiff poorly and that she was “essentially his meal ticket.”

“He took money from her, cheated on him, and repeatedly made promises that he didn’t keep,” Sellars said.

The woman had very good reason to be extremely upset and angry with him, the defense attorney said.

But while it was clear that the relationship was financially and emotionally abusive, he was not physically or sexually violent, he said.

Sellars said the woman’s evidence lacked credibility and reliability, pointing to changes between her opening statements and her filmed interview.

Judge Timothy Brewer said he agreed with the Crown that the defendant had controlled and manipulated the plaintiff throughout their relationship.

She thought he was her “dream partner” and he used it for his own ends; in particular for their financial support, Judge Brewer said.

His “tools of control” included explosive anger, alternately giving and withholding affection and lies, he said.

The judge also said that the detail the complainant gave in reliving the traumatic night of January 19, 2017 was compelling.

He found that the letter she wrote that night corroborated his account and did not accept that it was a later invention.

Judge Brewer also said he found it “significant” that the woman had filed for a protection order at the end of their relationship.

She had spent $ 3,000 on court orders at a time when she was upset about the depletion of her savings, she said.

In a filmed interview with the police, the complainant said that she met the defendant when she was vulnerable, and described herself as someone who liked “to help injured birds, so to speak.”

“I should have seen it, but at the same time I just wanted to be loved and I wanted what all my friends had, which was, you know, family, children and the man who loves them.”

The author told the police that the man wasted no time and that within weeks he was asking for money.

“I should have known.”

However, they quickly moved in together when they both needed to find a place to stay.

The court heard that there were early discussions about the money.

She told police that she felt like she was walking on eggshells in a volatile relationship that was eating away at her spirit, making her feel worthless.

There were times when he locked her in a small balcony, he said.

She told police that on January 19, 2017, she had come home to find the defendant asleep on the couch.

He sat quietly close on the edge of the couch. She said he was groggy and his eyes struggled to focus on her.

“‘You’re going to die today,'” she remembered his words after he woke up.

He chased her around the house with a knife, she said, as she tried to keep him at a distance.

The next thing she knew they were on the ground and he was on top of her, she said.

“He said ‘It’s time to go to sleep,'” he said.

“Never in my life have I been so scared. I managed to escape.

“I haven’t told anyone what he did next.”

He threatened to kill her and her family, she said, forcing her to perform sexual acts.

She told the court that she wrote a signed letter that night recounting what happened in the event she died.

The next morning, she said that he told her they weren’t discussing it and that “it didn’t happen.”

“A part of me died that night and I lost my fighting spirit.”

She described herself as insensitive to abuse from that point on and said that when she found evidence on her phone of her infidelity, she gave him a shove to leave.

Domestic Violence: Do You Need Help?

If you are in danger now:

• Call the police on 111 or ask your friends’ neighbors to call you.
• Run outside and go where there are other people.
• Yell for help so your neighbors can hear you.
• Take the children with you.
• Don’t stop to buy anything else.
• If you are being abused, remember that it is not your fault. Violence is never okay

Where to go for help or more information:

• Shine, toll free national helpline from 9 am to 11 pm every day – 0508 744 633 www.2shine.org.nz
• Women’s shelter: the free national crisis line is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – 0800 shelter or 0800 733 843 www.womensrefuge.org.nz
• Shakti: Provides specialized cultural services for African, Asian and Middle Eastern women and their children. Crisis line 24/7 0800742584
• Not good: information line 0800 456 450 www.areyouok.org.nz