Former One News sports presenter Tony Veitch was remanded on bail after appearing briefly in the Auckland District Court this afternoon.The 34-year-old appeared in front of a public gallery packed mainly with the media to face seven charges dating between 2002 and 2006. Six counts were of male assaults female and one count of was for injuring with reckless disregard. All charges relate to him allegedly assaulting his former partner, Kristin Dunne-Powell.
The charge of male assaults female carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment for each count, while injuring with reckless disregard carries five years.
Veitch entered no plea and was remanded on bail until a pre-depositions hearing date of September 29th 2008. He was ordered to surrender his passport and instructed to not attempt contact with Ms Dunne-Powell.
Outside the court, Veitch spoke to the media saying that “the past six weeks have been incredibly difficult and they have been incredibly frustrating watching this entire saga play out in front of the public."
Veitch's lawyer, Stuart Grieve, told the court the charges would be "strenuously defended".
3 comments:
I was really sorry for him in this morning that now he has to fight back real hard.
Have you read ODT?
It's everywhere and even stuff.com.
I don't know.. Veitch may be think of leaving NZ.. Maybe he is not happy about we got gold medal in Olympics.. :(
It's all about media and I know media can't be ever biased on this case.
Playing in front of public is not only for royal families or some celebrities but someone who are already guilty and sorry enough to put his chin up for only his sake..
The charge of make assaults female sounds really something media said this on purpose don't you think?
I don't know about this presenter well enough but I can see public now put some more on the top of his head..
If he did in fact commit the crimes, then he would have realised at the time that it would be reported in the media. Perhaps that is why he paid Kristen Dunne-Powell the $150,000 to keep quiet.
The charge of "male assaults female" does sound serious, and rightly so. It is the official title of the charge.
The media interest in the case is most definitely going to be a hindrance to him; it means that the jury isn't going to be going in there with a 'clean mind' as it were (assuming the case gets to trial), and while the judge may tell them to put aside whatever they have heard in the media, it's pretty obvious that that probably won't happen. The members of the jury are already going to be somewhat biased for or against him; and whether he is found guilty or not, could likely come down to these preconceptions.
This issue comes up whenever there's a highly-publicised trial; we saw it in the Kahui case, and will see it again when David Bain is retried. Unfortunately it's not a problem that's easily resolved; more name suppression or banning the media from proceedings might help, but ultimately these situations are always going to occur. As a law student, I have some serious reservations about the entire jury system, but unfortunately it's the best system we have.
Post a Comment