The woman appeared in Greymouth District Court. Photo / File
The woman appeared in Greymouth District Court. Photo / File
A Karamea woman charged with kidnapping and resisting arrest allegedly locked her former husband in a shipping container, a Greymouth District Court jury heard yesterday.
Edith Cynthia Sargent, 61, denies the charges, whereas Crown prosecutor Aja Trinder told the jury it was a "fairly simple case" about a marriage thathad "deteriorated to the point that the defendant ended up locking her husband in a shipping container".
By mid-2014, the marriage had broken down to the point where the husband was living in a shipping container on the property, while Sargent stayed in a caravan.
The Crown alleges that about 7.30pm on October 8, 2014, Sargant watched her husband enter the container and then locked the door behind him. Typical of shipping containers, it could not be unlocked from the inside.
Sargent did not reopen the container until 8.30am the next morning, despite being asked numerous times by her husband to let him out. While he was locked inside, he was harangued with a barrage of swearing and abuse.
Sargent also banged a large rock, or something that sounded like a large rock, on the side of the container.
When the complainant reported the incident to the police, and a constable went to the property with an order for Sargent to leave, she tried to avoid arrest by lying down on her bed and pushing her feet into the constable's stomach, Ms Trinder said.
Defence lawyer Michael Vesty urged the jury to remember that it took "two to tango" when it came to the failure of a relationship.
