First picture of Ewen Macdonald’s new wife
A love of sport brought newlyweds Ewen Macdonald and his new wife, Joyce Braas, together.
The Herald revealed earlier this week that Macdonald — who was acquitted on a charge of murdering his former brother-in-law and Feilding farmer Scott Guy — had married Braas in Dunedin on October 12.
The couple had an intimate wedding and married at a friend’s home. They live in a rural area outside of Christchurch.
Braas — a mother of three — is an accomplished netballer, an agegrade coach and first met Macdonald while she was playing for the Belfast Netball Club.
Macdonald plays for the Belfast Rugby Club’s classics team and was recently named forward of the year.
Dave Pilkington, president of the Belfast Rugby Football club, said he’d met Braas “a couple of times”.
“She’s very friendly, good to get on with,” he said.
The Belfast Netball club is affiliated with the rugby club.
Pilkington said Macdonald, a forestry worker, was popular amongst his team mates.
“He’s a good guy.” Macdonald’s ex-wife, Anna Guy — one of Scott’s sisters — wasn’t present at the wedding but said she had been told it was “small”. Guests included the seven children Macdonald and Braas have from their previous relationships.
“We have children together but we don’t chat. He told the kids he was getting married about six months ago,” Guy said.
She believed the pair had been seeing each other for about year.
Braas’ mother, Ria Blokdyk, said she and her other children didn’t attend the wedding.
Blokdyk wasn’t aware of Macdonald’s criminal past. “My first impressions were that he was a nice bloke until my other daughter saw his ankle bracelet. I didn’t see that the first time.” Guy died after being shot at close range with a shotgun outside his rural property in the early hours of July 8, 2010. In 2012, Macdonald was found not guilty of murdering him.
He was jailed for five years for other offences, including vandalising the farmhouse where Guy lived with wife Kylee, killing 19 calves and burning down a 110-year-old building.
He was denied parole four times before it was granted in 2015 with strict conditions.
They included electronic monitoring, a ban on entering the North Island, a ban on possessing or using firearms and a ban on communication or association with a cooffender.