A man was standing on the Ōmanu Golf Course, behind fencing and a railway line, when he witnessed an assault on a woman at a property across the highway. Photo / Rosie Dawson-Hewes
A man was standing on the Ōmanu Golf Course, behind fencing and a railway line, when he witnessed an assault on a woman at a property across the highway. Photo / Rosie Dawson-Hewes
A man was partway through his morning’s golf practice when he heard a woman’s screams across a Mount Maunganui highway.
Antony Paul Harborne and a friend looked to see where the screaming was coming from.
It took only a moment before Harborne called 111.
From behind a barbed-wire fence atthe Ōmanu Golf Course, a train line and four lanes of traffic, he watched helplessly as a woman suffered a “vicious” beating in a residential driveway.
In a judge-alone trial in the Tauranga District Court today, Harborne recalled some of the punches were so hard he could hear them thudding from where he stood, about 50m away.
Nathan Hunt was charged with assault with intent to injure for the attack on his ex-partner. The 33-year-old, who is not employed, denied the offending and said he punched only a car at the property.
But Harborne told the court he was clear about what he saw despite being across the road.
He estimated Hunt punched the woman 15-20 times and also kicked her.
The judge-alone trial was held in the Tauranga District Court. Photo / NZME
“She was a hell of a strong lady to handle that,” he said, after describing seeing the woman being punched, then hitting the side of the house and bouncing off, still standing.
He said he had been surprised she managed to stay on her feet after the first few punches, but said she eventually did hit the ground.
“She went down to her knees and I [saw] a couple of kicks come through,” Harborne said.
“It looked like they were going to the abdomen.”
The punches seemed to be directed “all over” the woman’s body. He hadn’t seen the woman throw any punches.
He also noticed Hunt had removed his shirt and was wearing a white singlet and shorts during the incident.
Harborne estimated the assault lasted about three to five minutes before the police arrived. His view had been obscured by a rubbish truck for about 10 seconds, but otherwise he had been able to see the whole incident play out.
At one point, the woman had got into the car, but Harborne said the man managed to get her out and continued the assault.
Police who arrived on the scene described Hunt as being agitated and “very elevated”, while the woman had been difficult to talk to.
She declined to make a statement or formal complaint and was not called as a witness in the trial, so no evidence of injuries could be provided.
Constable Torie Enticott said she had attempted to speak with the woman, but she had been “very reluctant” and seemed “exhausted”.
Because the woman was wearing long sleeves, Enticott couldn’t see if she had injuries.
The only thing she could see was that the woman had a cut on her foot.
Hunt’s evidence was that he and the woman, his ex-partner, had a heated argument during which there was screaming and shouting on both sides, after he found out she had contacted his new partner.
This conversation had allegedly prompted the new relationship to come to an end.
Hunt said he had been angry and agitated, but had taken his anger out on the car, not his ex-partner.
He removed his shirt himself because he had been hot and sweaty during the argument.
He denied punching the woman or being violent to her in any way. He questioned where the photographic evidence of injuries was, if he had been as violent as Harborne suggested.
However, Judge Paul Geoghegan dismissed his evidence, accepting Harborne’s account.
While the judge acknowledged Harborne had been a distance away, he had a clear line of sight and no issues with his vision.
Harborne had expressed “no doubt” about what he had witnessed.
“What he saw caused him so much concern that his call to police was immediate,” Judge Geoghegan said.
“His evidence was not vague or equivocal, it was clear.”
He did not accept it was credible that what occurred between Hunt and his ex-partner “did not contain a degree of physical violence”.
The judge said he was satisfied Hunt had assaulted the woman and in doing so had intended to injure her.
He convicted him on the charge, and Hunt will be sentenced in June.
HannahBartlettis a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.
