But the Crown argued that while there were \u201csome occasions\u201d Robson was violent, Green had taken a gamble with her partner\u2019s life by stabbing him, which amounted to murder.<\/p>\n
What was not in dispute was that on May 6 of last year, Green stabbed Robson with a kitchen knife during an argument in his Manurewa, South Auckland sleepout.<\/p>\n
He died at the scene and an autopsy revealed the knife went more than 9cm into his neck, damaging multiple blood vessels and causing major blood loss.<\/p>\n
Green\u2019s defence called a forensic psychologist who had assessed the woman over multiple sessions, and intimate partner violence expert Rachel Smith, who was there to speak on the topic on the whole, not the specifics of the case, to the High Court at Auckland this month.<\/p>\n
Smith said it was a common myth that victims of domestic violence were passive and did not resist, using the \u201coutdated\u201d term of \u201cbattered women\u2019s syndrome\u201d as an example.<\/p>\n
Victims will use force to stop force against them, she said.<\/p>\n
She also explained that victims often react to the threat of violence, particularly if they have been beaten before.<\/p>\n
They respond to \u201ceverything their partner\u2019s ever done to them\u201d and threats \u201cmade credible\u201d by what\u2019s happened before, she said.<\/p>\n
Despite the efforts of paramedics, Selwyn Robson died at the scene. Photo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Jacqueline Short s said Green suffered early emotional and physical abuse, then a serious assault as a teenager.<\/p>\n
Suffering complex post-traumatic stress disorder from that point, Green was subjected to an \u201caggressive coercive act\u201d when she tried to leave a violent partner in 2017, Short said.<\/p>\n
She was then left with a traumatic brain injury after an assault by another intimate partner the following year, the psychiatrist explained.<\/p>\n
Short said before Robson\u2019s death, Green was \u201chyper-sensitised\u201d to potential threats, particularly in reaction to real or perceived violence.<\/p>\n
The woman was projecting a tough self-image, prone to angry outbursts, which she sometimes could not remember, or numbness and \u201cshutting down\u201d, the psychiatrist said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Namesake, I have f***ed up\u2019<\/p>\n
On the second day of the trial, the court heard from the person Green went to after Robson died: longtime family friend Sharon Manaia.<\/p>\n
Manaia told the court she had been close friends with Green\u2019s late mother since she was 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long have you known Ms Green?\u201d Crown prosecutor Aysser Al-Janabi asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince she was in the belly,\u201d Manaia answered.<\/p>\n
Manaia called Green \u201cnamesake\u201d because her first name is one of the Green\u2019s seven middle names. She had, at times, looked after the woman growing up.<\/p>\n
Around the time of the stabbing, Manaia said she rarely heard from Green.<\/p>\n
She said about 11am on May 6, 2025, she saw Green walking down her Manurewa, South Auckland, driveway and into her shed.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Namesake, I have f***ed up\u2019,\u201d Manaia recalled Green saying.<\/p>\n
Green did not say what she meant by that but Manaia\u2019s response was something along the lines of \u201cstop, I don\u2019t want to hear it\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said she told Green to take a shower because there was blood on her face that looked like freckles.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes Ms Green have freckles?\u201d Al-Janabi asked Manaia.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d she responded.<\/p>\n
Manaia said Green shaken and flustered. After she showered, the two sat down and had a cup of tea for about an hour.<\/p>\n
They did not talk about what happened, she said.<\/p>\n
Then, Manaia said she went out to run some errands and when she came back Green was gone.<\/p>\n
The court heard from other witnesses during the trial that Green went to visit other wh\u0101nau and, bit by bit, confessed some of what she had done.<\/p>\n
The following day Manaia said Green returned to her home \u201cwithdrawn\u201d and \u201cjust didn\u2019t want to talk\u201d.<\/p>\n
Acting on advice given to her by police who had visited her home the night before, Manaia told Green she should hand herself in.<\/p>\n
Green agreed and they dropped a child off at school before heading to the police station.<\/p>\n
How did Green seem, Al-Janabi asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cLost,\u201d Manaia replied. \u201cLost for words, lost for emotions, just lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
She continued to look lost at the police station, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill not her normal self, still quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she waved to Green as she was taken away by police.<\/p>\n
Green is set to be sentenced in September.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s currently based in Auckland covering justice related stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But the Crown argued that while there were \u201csome occasions\u201d Robson was violent, Green had taken a gamble…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4058,181,175868,2082,37151,2518,3368,78,15035,80177,87076,111,43,139,69,1118,5502,384,245547,38884,544,15163,427,1361,1961,1455],"class_list":["post-524950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-contains","tag-details","tag-disturb","tag-for","tag-graphic","tag-green","tag-guilty","tag-in","tag-manslaughter","tag-manurewa","tag-margaret","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-partner","tag-people","tag-robson","tag-selwyn","tag-some","tag-stabbing","tag-story","tag-that","tag-this","tag-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524950","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=524950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}