Questioning the woman, the man’s lawyer, Andrew McCormick, suggested the alleged violence never happened and that the police officer only raised sending the recording once because it was a “safety issue”.
Yesterday, the trial before Judge Ngaroma Tahana began with a video of the police interview with the first complainant being played.
In the interview, the woman, known to the former police officer, said she had been at an event, which the man also attended.
She said he became angry with her at the event but later she drove him and his car home as he had been drinking.
When they got into the car, he smashed a drink can on the dashboard, she said.
The woman said she cowered but continued to drive.
She claimed it was around this time that he grabbed her between the legs and tried to lift up her skirt.
When they arrived at his home, he told her to “get out”, she said, but she insisted he then drive her home.
She claimed that it was on the drive to her house that he punched her in the nose, causing her to bleed.
During the drive, the man ranged from screaming at her and asking why she was not saying anything to telling her to “stop crying”, she said.
She said he swerved into another car before they pulled over and swapped seats.
The woman began driving, and the man went on to punch her in the ribs and the side of the head, she claimed.
She also alleged he swung at her with an open hand, poking her in the eyes and she said she screamed: “I can’t see”.
The woman claimed that when they arrived at her home, they got into “a bit of a scuffle” and he began strangling her while she was lying on the ground until she thought she was going to die.
She said all she could think about was who was going to feed her dog and who was going to tell her mum if she died.
“All I could think is they’re going to find me dead in this room,” she told the detective in the interview.
She also claimed there was “a lot of property damage” as the man had allegedly punched holes in her walls and door, as well as smashing his head into her living room door.
When questioning the woman, who appeared at the trial via audio-visual link, McCormick pressed the woman on whether the man had really steered the vehicle into oncoming traffic and touched her between her legs.
“He didn’t do that though, did he?” McCormick asked.
“He did,” she replied.
McCormick also questioned whether there was any “punching or striking” in the car, or anything “physical” at all when they got to the woman’s house, to which the woman said, “There was.”
Court documents show the man is facing 12 charges in relation to the woman, including injuring with reckless disregard, damage and threatening acts to her home, indecent assault, strangulation and blackmail for the panic attack recording.
He is also charged with assaulting two other women.
The trial continues.
Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She’s based in Auckland covering justice-related stories.
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