Samuel Forrest leaves the Waitakere District Court on Thursday. Photo / Greg Bowker
The father of Down syndrome baby Leo Forrest is facing a charge of assaulting the trustee he asked to help look after a fund of hundreds of thousands of dollars raised in a public campaign for his son.
The male-assaults-female charge carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
Samuel Forrest, 37, is accused of assaulting Trina Mclachlan on July 8 at the rented Massey home he shares with his Armenian wife, Ruzan Badalyan, and 7-month-old Leo.
He pleaded not guilty in the Waitakere District Court this afternoon and is to next appear on September 21.
Judge John Bergseng rejected Mr Forrest's lawyer David Ryken's argument that lifting name suppression would cause "extreme hardship" and possibly endanger the safety of Mr Forrest, his wife and their baby.
The court found the threshold for continuing name suppression was not met.
Forrest elected to have a judge alone trial.
He stood quietly in the dock throughout the 45-minute hearing.
No occupation was listed for Mr Forrest on the court charge sheet.
Afterwards, outside court, he said he wanted to get home to his wife and son.
Ms McLachlan, who was a friend of Mr Forrest's, acted as spokeswoman for him after an online appeal raised more than $500,000 for the baby from 17,900 donors.
She became co-trustee of the fund at his request but earlier this month went public with concerns about how the money was being spent.
About $380,000 was originally put into the trust but the balance had reduced by about $100,000, Ms McLachlan said.
Mr Forrest told the Herald the money was being managed responsibly and that there were investments Ms McLachlan did not know about.
He said he had replaced her with "an independent non-beneficiary custodian" whom he would not name.
He declined to comment about why they had fallen out.
Mr Forrest was granted name suppression by a court registrar when he first appeared on the charge, six days after the alleged assault.
The Herald opposed continued name suppression today arguing there is nothing extreme or unusual in the case to give rise to extreme hardship that would outweigh open justice and the public interest in knowing about the charge.
There was a strong legitimate public interest, it was submitted, because the alleged victim was the other trustee responsible for managing the large sum donated by members of the public and any dispute between the two was relevant, especially where any assault may have occurred in connection with donated funds.
Ms Badalyan gave birth to Leo on January 21 in Armenia, where disabled babies are often put in orphanages.
Mr Forrest later said his wife had disowned Leo and he planned to raise him on his own in New Zealand. He set up an appeal on the Go Fund Me site to help with expenses, hoping to raise $60,000 to allow him to dedicate a year to raising Leo as a fulltime solo-father back in New Zealand.
The couple has since reconciled and live in West Auckland.
The Go Fund Me site recorded that more than $600,000 was raised, but Mr Forrest told the Herald that was incorrect, and the amount after fees of $40,000 came to "a little over A$500,000" at a time when the NZ and Australian dollars were near parity.
The Herald has seen correspondence in which Mr Forrest authorised the trust be set up with a payment of A$350,000 and asked that he be paid from trust money $90,000 in the first year and up to $70,000 in the second for his role as "primary caregiver".
Last week, Mr Forrest told the Herald this was incorrect but declined to comment further.
He was the fourth generation of his family to belong to the Exclusive Brethren but broke away in 2011, about the time his marriage to a church member foundered.
He has four children from that marriage, whom he has not seen since. In February, his former wife, Kylie Forrest, said it was his choice. "He still has legal access arrangements."
Mr Forrest blames the church for becoming estranged from his children and reportedly said he intends to sue.