Assault victim ordered from court

A woman whose nose was broken by her boyfriend in an assault in which she was dunked in Pandora Pond until she thought she was going to die is standing by her man, who was yesterday sentenced to 19 months in jail.

The ongoing commitment emerged when 25-year-old Glyn Carl Roy appeared in Napier District Court. The victim sat in the public gallery until being ordered out by Judge Bridget Mackintosh, after she swore while disputing the police account of events as they started to unfold early on the morning of February 15.

The police said Roy text-messaged the young woman asking her to meet him, but yesterday, she interrupted court proceedings to say it was she who had texted him, and with an expletive added, that police "make up their own story."

Resuming the sentencing later, Roy apologised for the behaviour of his girlfriend, who was not allowed back into the court, and Judge Mackintosh attempted to reconcile the disputed account of the waterside rendezvous by saying: "By virtue of texting, you both ended up there".

She recounted from a police summary that Roy had charged at the young woman when she arrived, headbutting her four to five times, punching her a similar number of times, and forcing her head under the water until she could not breathe.

A resident called police who found the young woman hiding nearby, drenched, with torn clothing and injuries which needed hospital treatment.

In March, Roy pleaded guilty to a charge of assault with intent to injure. He was remanded in custody pending his appearance yesterday, when he was also sentenced to a concurrent term of three months for allowing a Hastings address to be used for cultivating cannabis.

The court was told his girlfriend claimed responsibility for the three plants and a kilogram of cannabis found.