A NSW police officer has been accused of sexually assaulting and choking his former wife among a series of alleged assaults during their relationship.
The police officer, who cannot be named because it would indirectly identify the complainant, is standing trial on 19 domestic violence-related charges in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court.
He allegedly told a child who called Triple Zero during one incident: “I will lose my job if you do that.”
During his opening address to the jury on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Rohan Cooley anticipated the officer’s ex-wife would give evidence about alleged assaults spanning six years, including three sexual offences on one day that culminated in him locking the bedroom door and sexually assaulting her.
The complainant was expected to tell the court she “told him to stop” and he “disregarded” this, the prosecutor said.
Cooley said the complainant was also expected to give evidence that her ex-husband allegedly “smashed her head” into a pole during an incident some years earlier.
The Crown said some of the alleged assaults occurred on days when the complainant was packing her things in an attempt to leave him.
The court heard the accused allegedly put his hand around his former wife’s neck and applied pressure, leaving her “gasping for air”, prompting a child to intervene, and punched her on the chin “in an uppercut motion” during separate incidents.
Alleged intimidation
Cooley said the complainant would allege her former husband caused the car they were driving in “to lose traction and stop in the middle of the road” during one disagreement.
He was charged was intimidation over the alleged incident. The court heard he is accused of changing the gears and pulling on the handbrake from the passenger seat while the complainant was driving at about 70 kilometres an hour.
Cooley said the court would hear evidence that a child in the car called Triple Zero, but “hung up before it connected, when it’s said the accused told [the child], ‘I will lose my job if you do that’.”
‘It’s not in dispute that this relationship was ultimately a toxic one.’
Defence barrister Claire Wasley
On another occasion, the accused allegedly told his wife: “I’ll bash your head against the wall.” He was charged with intimidation over that alleged incident.
The court is also expected to hear evidence that the accused replied to the complainant’s suggestion that she would report him to the police about a separate incident of alleged sexual touching without consent by saying: “Try it, with your credibility.”
Judge Philip Hogan told the jury that “this opening address isn’t evidence in the case”, but set out some of the anticipated evidence in the trial.
Cooley said that “the standard of proof in criminal trials … is beyond reasonable doubt”, and the Crown needed to prove the “essential elements or ingredients of the charges” to that standard.
‘Toxic’ relationship: Defence
Defence barrister Claire Wasley said in a brief opening to the jury that the accused, by his pleas of not guilty, denies the charges against him.
She encouraged the jury to pay “close attention” to the complainant’s evidence, including what she said to the police and other witnesses “throughout the relationship, [and] what she said in text messages and recorded conversations”.
“It’s important that you keep an open mind and consider all of the evidence in this case,” Wasley said.
Wasley said it was not in dispute that the relationship between the pair was “at times … dysfunctional and fraught with ongoing difficulties”. This included the “mental health struggles of both parties”, she said.
“It’s not in dispute that this relationship was ultimately a toxic one,” Wasley said. “What is in dispute is that [my client] … perpetrated domestic violence including sexual violence against [the complainant] at any time. He denies this.”
Wasley said his case would “emerge through my questioning of Crown witnesses in this trial, and in his recorded and written responses to allegations with which he was confronted at various times throughout the relationship”.
“I won’t be presenting detailed arguments about his case until the end of the trial,” she said.
“By listening to and evaluating the evidence, I anticipate that you will not be satisfied that the Crown has proven [the accused’s] guilt beyond reasonable doubt.”
The trial continues.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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