Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk, when opening the trial on Monday afternoon, said the boy was taken to Palmerston North Hospital in May 2019 with burns to 25 per cent of his body, including his groin and back. Defence lawyer Steve Winter said the woman maintained the burns were caused by the boy pouring a pot of hot water on himself. A friend of the woman said she was asked to go to the woman’s house urgently in 2019. The boy told her he was burnt while making pasta, the friend said. Another child and the mother repeated the same story, with the mother saying she had used lavender and Vaseline to treat the burns.
Judge Lance Rowe thanked the jurors for their dedication after “a very difficult trial to hear”. One of the charges involved Bullock slicing off a woman s track pants with a box cutter and holding it as he raped her. Crown prosecutor Guy Carter detailed the fear the women felt, and the confusion they had aboutwhat happened to them. He said consent is not a given and everyone had the right to choose every time they engaged in sexual acts. “You heard under interview that both women repeated the exact same story in regards to the sexual allegations. “They would struggle, they would fight, he would prise their legs apart and leave bruises.
The 59-year-old was due to be sentenced in the Palmerston North District Court on Thursday on one charge of doing an indecent act. But Judge Bruce Northwood decided he needed to consider an electronically monitored sentence so put the matter off for Corrections to assess this. When giving an explanation for his offending Toby had said: “No-one was around.” Four months on, why he offended remains a mystery. “One of the things that the defendant has said to me over and over again is that he doesn’t know why it was that he did what he did,” defence lawyer Fergus Steedman said.
Members of Metekingi’s family pulled her off the woman and back inside. Her victim was left with a bleeding nose. Metekingi told police she was too drunk to throw punches, but admitted what happened and later pleaded guilty to a charge of common assault, and two of breaching a supervision sentence. Defence lawyer Fergus Steedman said Metekingi had 12 days earlier moved to Palmerston North from the Coromandel with her children, hoping to start a new life. But she soon realised living further south was no better. “She obliterated herself on November 17. She drank through the day. “The victim of her offending was a perfectly innocent woman who was waiting for a bus. It was a horrible attack.”