SC woman found guilty of assault

A Timaru woman has been convicted of assaulting a woman who was 19 weeks pregnant on Valentines Day last year.

A Timaru District Court jury took just two and a half hours to find Whitiora Henry, 22, guilty of a charge of injuring with intent to injure. The court had been told she punched and kicked the woman while she was on the ground at a Timaru address.

Judge Joanna Maze remanded Henry on bail, with conditions, for sentencing on October 10. She was discharged without conviction on a theft charge.

In his closing statement, crown prosecutor Matt Beattie told the jury two versions of the events were presented, one in which Henry attacked the complainant, and another in which her thenpartner, Nathan Weir, attacked the woman. However Beattie said there was no evidence Weir committed the assault.

Weir said his phone was used by Henry to arrange a meeting with the woman - whom Henry had just learnt had been sleeping with Weir - to confront her about money taken from his bank account, Beattie told the court. He took the complainant to the Arthur St address, where she was attacked by Henry.

Henry pushed the complainant into a wall, punched her while on the ground and kicked her, while she was ‘‘cowering’’ and protecting herself, Beattie said. Henry knew she was 19 weeks pregnant at the time, he said.

Beattie said the complainant’s injuries were clear and undeniable, as was Henry’s clear dislike for her during evidence presented to the court in the form of a recorded police interview.

He mentioned a comment made by Henry in the interview: ‘‘I’m going to kill her... I will literally hospitalise her’’.

Beattie said it was true the relationship between Weir and the complainant ended in 2015, with Weir taking up a new relationship with Henry shortly afterwards.

Weir and the complainant then engaged in an affair, with at least one of their liaisons taking place at the property the week before the incident. The complainant admitted the affair through Facebook messages to Henry.

Beattie said Weir had accepted his first statement made to police about the incident was a lie, because he feared for his safety after threats from Henry’s family. A second statement made in June was consistent with the complainant’s account.

Defence counsel Craig Ruane told the jury it was dealing with ‘‘a group of people who live in a little world of high drama and intrigue’’, which it needed to bear in mind when considering its verdict.

In her recorded police interview, Henry told police she did not assault the complainant and was not at the address when it happened, Ruane said.

Ruane said the most obvious person to assault the complainant was Weir because she had taken money from his account and exposed his adultery to his new girlfriend. ‘‘Weir was having a fine old time.’’

The original police statement made by Weir did not mention the incident, and said he and Henry were at her mother’s place that day. At the time of his second statement, Weir was up on an assault charge against Henry in June, the second that year, and pleaded guilty to both.

‘‘I suggest he had a real motive to drop Henry in it ... a real motive to get back at her,’’ Ruane said. Ruane described the complainant as ‘‘frankly devious’’, smirking in court when she acknowledged she was trying to get back with Weir.