A judge has called a woman’s allegation of assault against her ex-husband, amid a bitter divorce, “implausible”.
Glenn Johnathon Coburn, 52, was before the Invercargill District Court today, defending allegations of assaulting his ex-partner, Marie Dorothy Coburn, at the Oreti Beach carpark on January 8 last year.
He was also charged over emailing her a month later, while a protection order was in place.
Defence counsel Bill Dawkins asked: “Are you saying that it was a coincidence that you came across [the defendant]?"
“One-hundred percent,” she replied.
She said when she pulled into the carpark and noticed her husband’s caravan, she decided to approach the mobile home to confront him about their relationship property disputes.
She recorded the interaction on her cell phone.
The court was played the recording, in which the two can be heard going back and forth about the contentious details of their split.
The moment can also be heard when the complainant said Mr Coburn grabbed her phone and ran back inside the vehicle.
“What are you grabbing my phone for?” the defendant could be heard saying, in a high imitation of her voice.
Seconds later Ms Coburn yelled “rape” which was, she said, after he grabbed her and yanked her into the mobile home, shutting the door.
She said, after about 15 minutes, Mr Coburn roughly pushed her out of the caravan, exacerbating an existing ankle injury.
After the alleged tussle, he could be heard in the recording saying: “Why can’t we make love one more time? Why not now?”.
In cross examination, Mr Dawkins questioned the likelihood that the woman was going for a walk on the beach at 10pm when the sunset was at 9:49pm.
“It wasn’t dark,” Ms Coburn insisted.
Judge Russell Walker agreed that “the inherent implausibility of the complainant going to Oreti Beach for a walk at 10pm at night” planted the first seed of “reasonable doubt”.
The judge also said the complainant, in two interviews with police, failed to mention that she first circled his caravan and disconnected its gas, before writing “druggie” on his car window.
He said that fact, plus the allegation that he attempted to rape her, was omitted from her police statements.
“Ms Coburn was, at best, selective, with what she did or didn’t tell police,” Judge Walker said.
During cross examination Ms Coburn told Mr Dawkins she didn’t want to make the rape complaint to police as she knew it would be hard to go over in court.
“I didn’t leave it out, I told the police, I said I did not want him charged with it,” she said.
The judge also said the email sent to the woman, while a protection order was in force, was more likely a mistake because the man had dyslexia and other communication difficulties.
He said the fact that the email had no message, apart from an attached invoice from Coburn’s family lawyer, and his father’s email in the subject line, showed “reasonable probability” it was sent in error.
When the judge dismissed both charges, the defendant broke down in tears.
