Veitch saga: Wounds that just won't heal

Tony Veitch. Photo / Doug Sherring

Broadcaster Tony Veitch this week vowed to make up to his wife for the year they have been through - take her out on dates again, move overseas with her, even work in a hardware store.

Yesterday, police found him in his car on a Waikato country road, after he went missing from the family home. It is believed a number of pills were also missing.

After his conviction and sentencing, Veitch had spoken optimistically of using his 300 hours of court-imposed community service to raise funds for a good cause - likely to be an anti-violence charity.

But hopes that he, his former partner Kristin Dunne-Powell and their families might now be able to rebuild their lives were shattered yesterday by the new concerns about Veitch's wellbeing, doctored character references that could return the case to court, and a renewed war of words.

Dunne-Powell's supporters had criticised Veitch for an apparent lack of remorse. That upset him and prompted him to make public some of the couple's personal emails and counselling notes, and to disclose the identity of a friend and former flatmate who had been in the house on the night of the attack.

Lea Andrew, an old schoolmate of Veitch, confirmed yesterday that he had been in the house that night, that police had spoken to him, and that he might have been called as a defence witness if the charges had gone to trial.

"She used to come around when Tony and her fought and she used to come around at all times of night," Andrew said. "To be honest, I zoned out most of the time. It was quite a big house we lived in.

"I don't think she would ever be happy for him if he was with someone else other than her," he added.

"She probably didn't realise it would come to all this, I'm sure, but it has and now it's making both their lives a misery."

Yesterday, Dunne-Powell said: "I do just want to get on with my life."

She was disappointed but muted in her response to Veitch's suggestions that she had been well enough to continue amicable communications with him, and to discuss a job back at TVNZ, where he worked.

"I would have hoped that the sentence on Thursday had been enough to stop Tony attacking me," she said. "But I was wrong."

Veitch spoke to the Herald on Sunday on Thursday and Friday, asking the newspaper to publish correspondence and counselling notes to demonstrate the ongoing friendly relations between himself and Dunne-Powell, and the extent of his remorse at the harm she suffered.

He called yesterday afternoon, in an upset state, again asking that the public be allowed to read a 2006 email, in which he expressed his sorrow "for all that happened" and signed off, "Love Tony".

He had earlier admitted: "I am the one who had the problem in the first place. I am the one who got myself in this situation."

He revealed how he had agreed the final $150,000 compensation payment to Dunne-Powell only six weeks out from his February 2008 wedding, afraid that threatened litigation might otherwise force them to cancel the wedding.

"Zoe and I, we were all in a mess, imagine the mess we were in," he said. "Do we call everyone and say, 'don't come'? Do we ring my brother in London and say, 'don't come for the wedding'?"

When news of the attack and the payout broke last year, the media was camped outside TVNZ where he was working. Paul Patrick, One News editor, smuggled Veitch out in the boot of his car. "I went in the boot of his car, not only to hide but also so they did not know where I lived, for Zoe's sake."

The worst day of his life, he said, was when he was charged and put in a court holding cell for five or six hours.

"The police brought me a fishing magazine to read but, I have to be honest, I hate fishing. But it was the thought that counts.

"It was hideous, there were guys trying to spit on me. I heard people... physically running at the metal doors and the guards having to go in and settle them down. I have never experienced anything like that in my life and I have never seen anything like it before. It was a bloody nightmare."

Veitch said he felt "incredibly guilty" at what he had put his wife and family through.

"I am going to have to ask my wife to be attracted to me again," he said. "I can't wait to be a daddy and that will be the greatest thrill and hopefully that will happen.

"But we need to just get back on track and we need to sort this out.

"I am not asking the public to have any sympathy for me. I have never once said I want people to feel sorry for me.

"I have lost my income, I have lost my job, I have lost my house, I have paid enormous legal fees...

"We thought about our life together and starting having children, and instead in that first year of our marriage it was an absolute nightmare."

His brother lent him thousands of dollars to pay his legal fees, and Tony and Zoe Veitch were forced to move back home with her parents.

"My mum has to support her son going through depression and I don't want that any more."