A High Court judge has emphasised that high-profile sportspeople must not get special treatment by refusing to allow name suppression for a former international rugby player accused of assaulting his wife.
Afato So'oalo, 32, is a former try-scoring star for the Canterbury Crusaders in the Super 12 tournament and represented
Samoa in test rugby. He is accused of assaulting his wife, possession of a weapon and threatening to kill.
So'oalo claims he only pushed his wife and there was an element of self-defence to his actions.
Last month a judge granted him a 36-hour name suppression to have time to talk to his family about the charges.
Yesterday he sought to continue that suppression by appealing to the High Court.
His lawyer, Leuatea Iosefa, argued that So'oalo was a high-profile sportsman and being named would impact on his negotiations with overseas rugby clubs offering professional contracts, including a "potentially lucrative" offer in Japan.
So'oalo, whose occupation was given to police as a plastics worker, had recently returned from France where a rugby contract had been terminated because of injury.
He was in the process of recuperation and his future rugby playing prospects were at a "delicate stage".
Justice Graham Panckhurst said there was not enough evidence before him to show an undue impact on his career, or risk to his livelihood, from publication of his name.
"The fact that somebody has a high profile cannot be determinative of whether they get name suppression, or otherwise we are going to have one law for the high profile and a different law for everyone else.
"Mr So'oalo is in the same boat as everyone else, in that everything being equal his name is published. That's a price that celebrities pay for celebrity."
Mr Iosefa said So'oalo denied the charges against him, had no previous convictions and deserved the presumption of innocence.
Justice Panckhurst said the charges he was facing were "moderately serious" and whether they were proven would come down to So'oalo's evidence versus that of his wife.
Zannah Johnston, for the prosecution, said So'oalo's wife had been spoken to and supported him losing name suppression.
But Mr Iosefa said the impact of publication of So'oalo's name would affect his family's livelihood as well.
"His wife perhaps does not appreciate the likely impact on her and the children.
"Whatever the impact, it can't be fixed once there is publication."
