Woman admits sending emails

A WOMAN who had a threeyear affair with a Dunedin businessman has admitted sending his wife ‘‘annoying’’ emails when the illicit relationship broke down.

But Margaret Denise Kronfeld denied there was anything more vicious about it and rejected the allegation it amounted to harassment.

The 51yearold defendant has spent the past two days on trial before the Dunedin District Court.

After the prosecution finished calling witnesses yesterday, charges of misusing a telephone and using offensive language were withdrawn.

Following discussions with his client, Andrew Speed told Judge Crosbie she would plead guilty to two other Telecommunications Act charges.

With three counts of accessing a computer system without authority and one of criminal harassment remaining, Kronfeld entered the witness box.

Her former lover told the court on Monday about how the affair began but the defendant gave a different and more detailed version.

Kronfeld agreed they had first crossed paths at a conference in Auckland and that the man had texted her only hours after meeting, playfully calling her ‘‘teacher’s pet’’.

She told the court the man had later gone out on the town with a colleague and bragged about his shenanigans the following day.

‘‘He was quite vocal on his antics from the evening,’’ Kronfield said.

‘‘He said he’d been out with [another man], they had gone to some strip clubs and some hookers had been involved.’’

Things heated up between the pair in January 2011 when they were invited aboard Spirit of Adventure.

Afterwards there were drinks in Auckland’s Viaduct and the two left other associates to share dinner together, followed by a walk back to his hotel.

‘‘He started to kiss me in the foyer and invited me to his room,’’ Kronfeld said.

While their romps continued over the next three years, they were spotted together twice in public.

One of the defendant’s workmates had told her there were rumours about the pair and to ‘‘get it sorted’’.

‘‘I was embarrassed by the whole thing and felt uncomfortable. It concerns my business at that point,’’ Kronfeld said.

At the end of February 2014, she said she gave the man an ultimatum — to make the affair public or stay with his wife. He chose the latter.

Thus began a slew of emails from the defendant — who set up several email accounts under different names — to his wife.

Kronfeld admitted being behind the communication which labelled the woman, who has permanent name suppression, a ‘‘weak bitch’’ along with a host of other insults.

She copied in the complainant’s boss and daughter to some messages and asked if she wondered where her husband’s ‘‘tool’’ had been lately.

‘‘I bet you might vomit,’’ Kronfeld wrote.

Mr Speed asked his client why she had sent the emails.

‘‘I wanted to annoy her,’’ she said.

‘‘To be really honest, I don’t know. It’s not my normal behaviour, so other than to annoy her I don’t know what my reasoning was.’’

Kronfeld laughed at the prospect the woman may have felt seriously threatened.

For the first time yesterday, the defendant also admitted logging into the St Hilda’s ‘‘parents portal’’ — a website that allowed people to check on their child’s progress at the allgirls school.

She claimed her exlover had given her the password and she had only gone on the site to compare his daughter’s NCEA results to her own daughter’s. He denied that was the case. Police prosecutor Stewart Sluis said forensic digital data showed she had logged into the man’s email minutes before accessing the portal and he suggested she had got the password for it from his inbox.

Kronfeld said that was untrue.

The trial, before Judge Crosbie without a jury, will close tomorrow.

rob.kidd@odt.co.nz