{"id":17514,"date":"2026-05-27T13:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T01:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17514"},"modified":"2026-05-27T13:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T01:14:17","slug":"how-about-i-punch-you-in-the-face-accused-lashes-out-at-prosecutor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17514","title":{"rendered":"‘How about I punch you in the face?’: Accused lashes out at prosecutor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warning: this story contains allegations of family harm that may be upsetting to some readers.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

A man facing a raft of family harm and violence charges has lashed out at the Crown, describing the prosecutor as a “freak” and “twisted”.<\/p>\n

At that point, Judge Peter Hobbs intervened, telling the man, whose name is suppressed, that he would not tolerate the man insulting a Crown prosecutor.<\/p>\n

“I do not like the Crown and what they have done to me,” the man responded.<\/p>\n

The man is on trial in the Wellington District Court, where he denies 16 charges, including male assaults female, suffocation, assault with a weapon, ill-treatment of an animal, supplying a Class C controlled drug to a young person, and common assault.<\/p>\n

Because he is self-represented and giving evidence in his own defence, the judge read out the allegations to him.<\/p>\n

As he did so, the man dismissed each allegation, describing them with a range of terms, including “lies”, “bulls***”, “utter crap” and “completely incorrect”.<\/p>\n

During his testimony, the man frequently went off on tangents that, at times, were difficult to follow.<\/p>\n

As a result, he received several warnings from the judge to only give evidence that was relevant to the current charges.<\/p>\n

‘A whipped-up woman who wants me in her life’<\/h3>\n

The charges relate to a woman, whose name is also suppressed, whom he met on Tinder. He later moved in with her and her teenage son.<\/p>\n

It is during this time that the Crown says the relationship soured, with the mother and son describing how the man was allegedly violent and controlling towards them.<\/p>\n

The teenager told the court he was repeatedly hit in the face, had spray cans hurled at him and was whacked in the head with a back scratcher so hard that he cried.<\/p>\n

It is also alleged the man beat the family dog with an electrical cord and dangled it by its legs.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the trial, the woman described the man as violent and controlling and said the situation resembled a “house of horrors”.<\/p>\n

But in his evidence, the man alleged she was the controlling one.<\/p>\n

He told the court that when he moved in, “the house was rat-infested, the dog s*** everywhere” and it was filled with teenagers who “would urinate on the leather couches because they were so high”.<\/p>\n

In her evidence, the woman said the relationship was initially romantic but began to strain after about eight months, when they were living together.<\/p>\n

After his arrest, the woman told police, “I want my life back, and I don’t want to see him anymore. I want him to move on like he promised.”<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the man told the court it was that unwillingness to commit to a romantic relationship that led to these charges, showing the jury a message the woman had texted him.<\/p>\n

“I want my happy life where I can have someone in my life who loves me as a significant other, you don’t want me, so why should I stay?” the woman’s message said.<\/p>\n

“This is all about a whipped-up woman who wants me in her life, basically providing everything she wants for free out of me,” he told the jury.<\/p>\n

“It’s not going to happen. She’s already got everything, so there’s nothing more to take.”<\/p>\n

It’s a theme he repeated, telling the jury, “she just wants a man, and she wants a partner”.<\/p>\n

But the man reiterated that he wasn’t interested, “I’m just a man with a broken neck and fighting the system, that’s it.”<\/p>\n

‘I’ve been harassed by the Crown and the police’<\/h3>\n

In his opening address to the jury, the man said he was abused in state care, including being locked in cells from the age of 7.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been harassed by the police and the Crown.<\/p>\n

“This woman done this to me, said I suffocated her. That’s a lie, that’s a 100 percent lie. She had left prior to the incident, left and abandoned her child.<\/p>\n

She had rehearsed this stuff with the police,” he told the jury.<\/p>\n

As a result of these charges, he told the jury, he’d spent two years in custody and lost his freedom.<\/p>\n

‘How about I punch you in the f***** face?’<\/h3>\n

During cross-examination by prosecutor Wilber Tupua, the man denied that he was angry while he lived at the house, and when he got angry, he got violent.<\/p>\n

“No, not at all,” the man responded, claiming the woman had stabbed him with a pair of scissors.<\/p>\n

He also denied punching the woman in the face.<\/p>\n

The court earlier heard evidence from two witnesses who saw her on a night she was alleged to have been assaulted and described her as looking scared, slightly wet and with a bloody nose. A third witness took her to the hospital.<\/p>\n

But the man insisted he didn’t punch her, adding that if he had, her face would be smashed.<\/p>\n

“How about I punch you in the f***** face?” he suggested to Tupua at one point.<\/p>\n

He also told the jury his injuries, which included a broken back and neck, from past accidents, made it impossible to inflict the injuries he’s accused of.<\/p>\n

He was also adamant he’d never abused the dog, claiming he had hand-reared it since it was a puppy and it was his dog.<\/p>\n

“They’ve stolen my dog Wilber, and I am not happy.<\/p>\n

“You’re trying to rark me up, aren’t you? You think people can get away with stealing my dog? Using the state to furnish their needs because I have a history,” he said.<\/p>\n

Again, as Tupua listed the allegations, the man denied them all.<\/p>\n

The trial before Judge Hobbs is expected to continue until the end of the week.<\/p>\n

Where to get help:<\/h3>\n