A judge has cleared a Queenstown man of bottling a woman after a Crate Day party erupted in violence, but found him guilty of resisting arrest.
Giving evidence about the incident on the evening of December 4 last year, complainant Charlotte Searle said she was at a small party at her friend’s Frankton Rd apartment when Till arrived with two other men.
Although a drunk and "seedy" Till was annoying her and a friend by getting too close while they were dancing, worse trouble began when his friend, Marius Hockel, began hitting women on their bottoms with what appeared to be a wooden spoon.
When the three men were told to leave, fighting started and spilled outside.
Ms Searle said Till and another man got in a shoving match, and she "regrettably" decided to step between them.
That was when the defendant struck her on the side of the face with a large beer bottle.
Under cross-examination, she rejected a suggestion by Till’s counsel, Megan Waller, she had been unintentionally "bumped out of the way" in the middle of a chaotic scene.
Ms Searle said she suffered bruising to her face. The pain was such she visited a GP a couple of days later.
Till told the court he was leaving the apartment with Mr Hockel and his other friend when he found their way effectively blocked by the complainant and a man who wanted to fight him.
During his confrontation with the man, the complainant got "very much in the way", but he denied assaulting her. He suggested she had inadvertently "got a whack" from a stray elbow.
When police arrived, they immediately "got physical" with him without explaining why, and he admitted resisting "slightly" and moving away from them.
However, when told why he was being arrested, he had allowed himself to be handcuffed.
Constable Lorne Capell told the court three officers were needed to restrain and arrest the defendant.
The defendant later stated he had drunk half a bottle of whisky and taken two Tramadol tablets for pain relief since that morning.
Judge Chris Sygrove said he sympathised with the complainant if she had in fact been struck by a bottle, but the evidence presented to the court to support her claim was "somewhat deficient", and he had no choice but to dismiss the charge of assault.
However, there was ample evidence the defendant had resisted arrest, and he convicted Till on that charge.
He imposed a 12-month deferred sentence, meaning there will be no further penalty if the defendant remains offence-free over that time, but he ordered Till to make a $100 donation to the Salvation Army.
