'He's trying to strangle [him]': 111 call played to Hamilton jury

The partner of the complainant can be heard telling a 111 operator that he is being kicked in the head and strangled.

A 111 call the night an alleged serious attack took place on a man in rural Waikato has been played to a jury.

The complainant's partner can be heard telling the operator that he is being "kicked in the head" and "strangled".

The recording was played to a jury of four men and eight women, in the Hamilton District Court today in the trial of Elisha Jack Cramond, 26, who denies charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice, assault with a motor vehicle, threatening to kill and injuring with intent to injure the victim's partner on August 28, last year.

Cramond, together with Michael Sam Torrington, 28, faces a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm during the alleged incident at Torrington's Waikato farm house.

A jointly laid charge of sexual violation has been dismissed.

The Crown alleges the victim, 35, was beaten in the lounge of Torrington's farm property in Kerepehi, northwest of Paeroa, on the night of August 28 last year.

Crown prosecutor Heidi Wrigley earlier told the jury the victim, his partner and Torrington knew each other. The victim met Cramond on the night of the incident.

Wrigley told the jury of four men and eight women both accused subjected the victim to a "savage assault" that night which included kicks to the head, strangulation and having cow poo and gravel shoved in his face, as well as a finger severely bitten.

His partner was also subjected to an assault, she submitted, by Cramond after she tried to protect him and was then thrown to the ground and had her face shoved in a puddle where she struggled to breath.

The assault resulted in him now being blind in his right eye as well as suffering memory loss, she said.

Torrington's counsel Martin Hine today played the 111 call made by the complainant's partner on the night of the attack.

Although some of it was inaudible, she can be heard telling the operator that Cramond was assaulting her partner.

"There's a fight going down … he just started to attack my partner … he's trying to strangle [complainant]."

She's then heard telling Torrington that she is on the phone to police, "this is some serious shit", she's heard yelling.

"He's getting kicked in the head," she tells the operator.

Torrington's voice can also be heard in the recording.

Hine put it to the complainant that he was wrong about his client's involvement and that he was not involved in the grievous assault.

The witness dismissed that suggestion. However, he said he couldn't be totally sure that he was involved in shoving cow dung and gravel in his face.

The trial, being overseen by Judge Kim Saunders, is likely to conclude on Friday.