The man — who has interim name suppression — is on trial before the Dunedin District Court in front of Judge Kevin Phillips in the absence of a jury after pleading not guilty to assault in a family relationship and possessing a firearm without a licence.
At the close of the Crown case yesterday, counsel Anne Stevens QC argued the charges stemming from the December 21 incident should be dismissed.
“The defence case is the evidence of the complainant is inherently incredible and so inconsistent as to lack sufficient cogency for your honour to find there’s a case to answer,” she said.
The judge agreed there were issues with the woman’s credibility but said there was other evidence that meant the trial should progress.
That resulted in the defendant entering the witness box.
The high-ranking officer told the court he was stood down for several weeks after charges were laid and had been on “restricted duties” since returning to work.
He said he returned home after an end-of-year celebration with police colleagues to loud music and soon realised his partner was intoxicated.
Her alcoholism, he said, had been a recurring point of contention in their relationship to the point where he had threatened to leave her.
The defendant said the episode did not begin as a shouting match.
“I was worried about her,” the man said.
He took out his phone and recorded the woman making a range of sexual allegations about him.
The defendant said he took the footage to remind his partner of her behaviour should she deny it the next morning.
“It was probably the last straw in our relationship,” he said.
“We were just going in circles with these sorts of arguments and alcohol abuse.”
The complainant told the court, when she gave evidence on the first day of the trial earlier this month, she was challenged to fight and fists began flying.
But the defendant denied that and said he was on the end of the violence.
“I ducked and covered my head,” the man said.
He estimated his partner inflicted up to eight blows to the back and top of his head.
“We’re over. We’re done. We’ll have shared custody of the kids,” the man recalled telling her.
The defendant said he was shocked by the arrival of the police and further so when told there was an allegation of assault.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
The defence also called a friend of the couple to give evidence.
She recounted a conversation the day after the event in which the complainant admitted she had not been struck and that she knew her partner would never do such a thing.
The witness said she was aware of the woman’s issues with addiction and was there to support her.
Earlier, the court heard from several police officers involved in taking statements from the couple.
Constable Courtney Jones said she immediately noticed a bruise to the complainant’s eye and a swollen lip when she turned up at the home.
The woman became noticeably upset when describing how she was punched in the face, the witness said.
However, the next day the complainant went to the police station, where she claimed to have lied.
She had received injuries from hitting her head on the table, she first said, before later saying she punched herself in the face.
Detective Grant Miller cautioned the woman that she might be implicating herself in a criminal offence.
After speaking to a lawyer she declined to make a formal statement.
The court also heard a .22-calibre rifle was found at the home in a locked cupboard.
The defendant said he had never used the weapon and stressed both it and the property at which he lived were owned by his father.
Judge Phillips will give his verdicts this morning.
