{"id":257134,"date":"2026-01-29T05:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T05:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/257134\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T05:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T05:41:07","slug":"auckland-property-developer-andrew-montgomerie-on-trial-over-wounding-of-westmere-partygoer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/257134\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland property developer Andrew Montgomerie on trial over wounding of Westmere partygoer"},"content":{"rendered":"

He said he had taken a \u201cvery small amount\u201d of the drug and was on his second glass of champagne when he and his wife noticed that Montgomerie and his wife were also at the party.<\/p>\n

\"AA cocktail party at a Westmere property turned into a crime scene in April 2021 after Auckland property developer Andrew Montgomerie allegedly smashed a wine glass against another man’s neck during a heated exchange. Montgomerie is on trial, accused of wounding the other man. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n

\u201cThey weren\u2019t on particularly good terms,\u201d prosecutor Isabella Joe told jurors today during the Crown\u2019s opening address, explaining that the two had previously worked together but had ended the business relationship on a sour note after Montgomerie refused to pay the final bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, if we run into him, I\u2019ll just be calm and say hello nicely to him,\u201d the complainant would later recall telling his wife, adding that he was shocked to see the person he hadn\u2019t spoken to in four years.<\/p>\n

\u2018Seeing red\u2019<\/p>\n

The two did cross paths not too long thereafter \u2013 an accident, the complainant said, as he was trying to find his wife in the crowd.<\/p>\n

He recalled greeting Montgomerie, who is larger than him, and offering a handshake.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe squeezed my hand so hard that he sort of crushed the handshake and my fingers collapsed,\u201d the complainant testified. \u201cAt that point, I knew I needed to extract myself from that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Montgomerie, photographed outside Auckland District Court in 2021, is charged with wounding. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

He said Montgomerie continued to hold his hand tightly as he said: \u201cI\u2019m surprised you\u2019re shaking my hand given all the shit you\u2019re talking about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complainant said he pulled his hand away and started to turn around when Montgomerie spoke up again.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, come back here,\u201d he accused the defendant of ordering. \u201cCome back here and say it to my face.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complainant said he now regrets it, but he turned back at that point and replied in an elevated but not yelling voice: \u201cIt\u2019s not shit if it\u2019s all true. You owe me money and millions of dollars to my mates.\u201d<\/p>\n

That appeared to have hit a nerve, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Montgomerie, angry and embarrassed, saw red and lashed out,\u201d Joe said.<\/p>\n

\"AucklandAuckland property developer Andrew Montgomerie is accused of wounding a man at this Westmere property. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n

The complainant said the moments that followed felt like slow motion. He sensed coldness from the drink spilling down his chest followed by the warmth of blood. It felt like Montgomerie had been intentionally pushing the broken glass deeper into his neck, he said.<\/p>\n

When he opened his eyes again, he said, he realised he was on his knees. He felt blood gushing from his neck with such pressure that he thought it necessary to put both hands over the wound, he recounted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew at that stage I was in a lot of trouble,\u201d he said, explaining that he struggled to get up, then ran inside, shouting, \u201cI need help. I need an ambulance. I\u2019ve been stabbed in the neck.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bartender gave him a tea towel to cover the wound, and another person pulled him into the home\u2019s entryway to administer first aid, he recounted. The complainant said he wasn\u2019t exactly sure, but he thought he remembered Montgomerie and his wife stepping over him at some point as they exited the party before paramedics and police arrived.<\/p>\n

\"AA cocktail party at a Westmere property turned into a crime scene in April 2021 after Auckland property developer Andrew Montgomerie allegedly smashed a wine glass against a man’s neck. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite fearful for my life at that stage, given how much blood was coming out of my neck,\u201d he testified.<\/p>\n

He spent three days in hospital, including a two-and-a-half-hour surgery to remove glass shards from the wound and stitch it up.<\/p>\n

\u2018Not a villain\u2019<\/p>\n

During the defence opening statement and in cross-examination, lawyer Ron Mansfield, KC, repeatedly emphasised his client \u201cwasn\u2019t high on coke like [the complainant]\u201d. He suggested the other man had repeatedly exaggerated or lied about the sequence of events out of lingering spite for Montgomerie.<\/p>\n

The defendant would give evidence later in the trial, he promised.<\/p>\n

It was not true that Montgomerie was \u201csome kind of commercial villain\u201d, he said, adding that the bad blood stemmed from a legitimate business dispute regarding dissatisfaction with the complainant\u2019s work. The unpaid invoice amounted to just over $4000 and had been written off by the complainant years earlier, he said.<\/p>\n

\"DefenceDefence lawyer Ron Mansfield, KC, consults with client Andrew Montgomerie at the start of the defendant’s trial in the Auckland District Court. Photo \/ Alyse Wright <\/p>\n

It\u2019s obvious neither man liked or trusted the other, and that resulted in a conversation where both employed bravado, Mansfield said. But it would have been crazy for Montgomerie to knowingly try to attack another person with a glass at a party where about 60 people were potential witnesses, he said.<\/p>\n

In a statement around the time of his arrest, Montgomerie had told police he had raised his glass instinctually after seeing the other man come at him out of the corner of his eye, thinking he was about to throw a punch. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [there are] two grown men who don\u2019t trust each other … when one moves, unfortunately, the other is going to expect the worst,\u201d Mansfield later elaborated.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Westmere property where the confrontation took place. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an unfortunate accident, but not intended. We only hold people accountable when they intend to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutors Joe and Ruby van Boheemen were dubious of the claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the Crown\u2019s case that it\u2019s … a made-up version of events,\u201d Joe said.<\/p>\n

\u2018We thought he\u2019d die\u2019<\/p>\n

Under cross-examination, the complainant denied repeatedly that he had exaggerated. He was sober despite the cocaine and champagne, he insisted.<\/p>\n

Mansfield pointed to medical reports noting that the wound caused no significant damage and describing an \u201cuneventful recovery\u201d.<\/p>\n

When the same was put to the complainant\u2019s wife, she took issue with Mansfield\u2019s suggestion that the situation had been exaggerated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought he was going to die. The ambulance drivers thought he was going to die,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was bad, and it was traumatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

She emotionally recalled kneeling by her husband\u2019s side as they waited for paramedics to arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said to me that he loved me and that he loved the kids, and he said that Andrew Montgomerie had stabbed him \u2013 glassed him,\u201d she said. \u201cHe looked scared, but he was very controlled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her testimony later had to be paused after she broke down into tears, saying she was traumatised recounting the evening. The cross-examination ended a short while later.<\/p>\n

Neither the complainant nor his wife attended court today. Their evidence had been recorded earlier and played on a TV screen for the four-woman, eight-man jury, which was empanelled yesterday.<\/p>\n

\"JudgeJudge Paul Murray. Photo \/ Alyse Wright <\/p>\n

Montgomerie spent the day seated at a desk behind Mansfield instead of the dock, next to a communications assistant. Judge Paul Murray explained that the defendant needed the assistance due to an unrelated head injury that had occurred after the incident the jury is tasked with considering.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to continue tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Craig Kapitan<\/a> is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He said he had taken a \u201cvery small amount\u201d of the drug and was on his second glass…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[148228,11428,20251,39107,51,3952,10748,19757,29414,170,15974,1342,9637,25631,148223,148230,6978,111,43,139,69,1118,90,1523,4762,148224,814,12975,50643,148229,148227,6290,148225,54,148226,59452,1316,1754,26105,1530],"class_list":["post-257134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-abrupt","tag-ambulance","tag-andrew","tag-attended","tag-auckland","tag-aucklands","tag-came","tag-cocktail","tag-developer","tag-development","tag-emergency","tag-five","tag-glass","tag-guests","tag-montgomerie","tag-necessitating","tag-neck","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-over","tag-party","tag-partygoer","tag-property","tag-sector","tag-smashed","tag-stemless","tag-subset","tag-surgery","tag-swanky","tag-trial","tag-welltodo","tag-westmere","tag-when","tag-wine","tag-wounding","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}