Former TVNZ sports broadcaster Tony Veitch has been fined $10,000 for kicking his former partner Kristin Dunne-Powell in the back.
He also has to carry out 300 hours of community service and will be under supervision for nine months.
A judge in the Auckland District Court told Veitch he was the architect of his own misfortune and that nothing that his former partner had done justified his actions.
Tony Veitch had been facing seven assault related charges - but in the end it was one single act of violence that saw him plead guilty to the most serious charge of all
“Guilty.”
It was the only word Veitch said in the court room as he admitting kicking his ex-girlfriend as she lay on the floor in his Auckland home.
It broke her back - and put her in a wheelchair.
For the first time, Kristin Dunne-Powell spoke of the immense anguish it had caused her.
“Tony made me feel to blame, helpless, isolated, and threatened and ashamed. I felt at the time my life was at risk”, she said.
“I have recurrent distressing recollections of what happened, and have thoughts and dreams in which I relive the experience I get intensely distressed when I’m exposed to situations to things that resemble what happened to me.
“In March 2006 I was re-hospitalised after a nervous system breakdown, and I was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. The damage to my back has resulted in muscle atrophy and loss and that has caused a physical disfigurement, the disfigurement was so apparent that when I got married in 2007 it was necessary for a dressmaker to pad out my dress.”
The court heard how Veitch paid Dunne-Powell $167,000 following the attack in compensation, and also to ensure she kept quiet about what had happened.
He apologised too - and paid a $5,000 donation to a domestic violence charity.
Since then, Dunne-Powell said she had been making good progress but at times, the effects were more than she could bear.
“I have not slept adequately since January 2006 and I become exhausted easily. This exhaustion affects me deeply and limits how much I can achieve each day. The ongoing impact of my injuries and the stress of the last nine months has delayed the ability of my husband and I to start our own family. The injuries and stress have aged me prematurely and affected it seems every part of me and my life.”
As punishment for the attack the Crown said Veitch deserved a sentence of six to twelve months home detention.
“Nothing she did justifies what he did, which was to kick her on the back while she was on the ground”, said Crown Prosecutor John Dixon.
But Veitch’s lawyer Stuart Grieve QC appealed for a non-custodial service saying he was of excellent character, and seriously regretted what had happened.
He tried to put the attack in context.
“When he came back to the bedroom, the complainant had been through the cell phone and the argument started and went on for some hours,” Grieve said.
“At one point Mr. Veitch left the house, went to the beach hoping she would leave, when he came back she was still there and the argument continued. It reached the point where he was on the bed circled up with his hands over his ears, trying to shut out the persistent verbal arguments being maintained. He went to leave the room again, she was lying in his way and he cracked momentarily, lashed out and kicked her once in the back.”
Grieve said Veitch recognised the suffering he had caused Dunne Powell but said Veitch had also been affected.
Not only had he lost his half a million dollar career - but also his home, and at times, his sanity.
“He also has been emotionally burned both with the guilt of what he did and the notoriety to which he has been subjected, and to the point, and it's regrettably public, where he has made two serious attempts to take his own life.
“Because of the frenzied and persistent media attention Mr. Veitch has suffered consequences far beyond those faced by a more anonymous defendant. There has been public humiliation and loss of reputation which have left him with inability to conduct his life has he had previously,” grieves told listeners.
But the judge said that was an inevitable consequence, given his high profile jobs with TVNZ and Radio Sport.
Judge Jan Doogue: “Let me say on the outset that those who live in the public eye suffer inevitable additional exposure when they fall from grace. You have perpetrated an act of violence on an innocent party and that you are the author of your own misfortune in all of this.”
She rejected Veitch’s claim that Dunne-Powell had provoked him - but said the attack was not enough to attract a prison sentence.
She sentenced him to nine months supervision, 300 hours community work, and ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine.
Doogue: “There is medical evidence which persuades me that is would be endurious to your health to impose that form of sentence. From what I have read and heard from the victim in this matter I am confident too that she would not support an outcome that would put your mental health at risk.”
Afterwards, Veitch gave a statement to collected media representatives outside the court in which Veitch said his actions were out of character and they would certainly never happen again. He said he was glad the other charges were dropped and expressed surprise that they were laid at all.
Veitch also took the opportunity to criticise segments of the media for publishing slandering stories that he believes had no basis of truth.
3 News