Praise as judge names and shames Sivivatu

Sitiveni Sivivatu leaving court yesterday. Photo / Alan Gibson

A women's group last night applauded a judge's decision to lift name suppression on All Black Sitiveni Sivivatu after he admitted assaulting his wife.

But Women's Refuge national manager Heather Henare expressed disappointment that Judge Phillip Connell, by discharging Sivivatu without conviction, indicated the assault was relatively minor.

"Any violence of any form is not okay," Ms Henare said. "I don't think any assault is okay and referring to it as a minor incident is minimising it."

But she was pleased the All Black had taken responsibility for his actions by admitting the assault.

And she said the judge had redeemed himself by refusing to follow unhealthy precedents of other family violence cases involving leading sportsmen whose names were suppressed.

An example was that of an All Black who admitted assaulting and trying to drag his pregnant wife along the ground and was discharged without conviction two years ago and granted permanent name suppression.

Sivivatu's discharge was against the arguments of a police prosecutor during a hearing that lasted more than two hours yesterday in the Hamilton District Court.

Outside the court Sivivatu said he regretted his actions and was sorry for the hurt caused. He asked that his privacy and his wife's be respected.

"I'm clearly sorry about what I did - I totally regret it and I just want to move on."

Sources told the Herald that Sivivatu's wife, Suliana, phoned police several days after the attack and pleaded with them to drop the charges but they refused.

Yesterday, Judge Connell ruled that a criminal conviction would far outweigh the crime and said the unveiling of Sivivatu's identity was "punishment enough".

The judge advised Sivivatu's lawyer not to go into what led to the assault, as it was irrelevant.

Police were called to Sivivatu's Hamilton home about 2am on March 19, after a domestic dispute got out of hand.

Sivivatu slapped Suliana twice during a heated argument, once against the side of her face and once on her upper right arm.

She retreated, but Sivivatu followed her because, he said, he wanted to apologise. His wife blocked his path by throwing two chairs at him, then called the police.