The woman whose son is on trial for murdering her husband has described how her son cradled his dying father in his arms as he apologised for what he had done.
Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Wide-ranging suppression orders prevent RNZ from naming her, her husband or her son.
Today, through tears, the woman told the court how her children had been beaten and watched as she was beaten by their father.
Her husband would frequently leave their home in a provincial centre for weeks at a time, she said.
"I was just at home raising the kids on my own most of the time. So, it was pretty hard, and hard putting food on the table."
Life only got harder when her husband returned, she said.
"He'd just come home and start accusing me of just going out and sleeping around... Then he'd think I was having affairs with his family members and he'd just give me hidings for it."
She tried to shelter her children from the violence but could not protect them all the time, she said.
Her husband would also get angry with his son because after his father spent time in prison, the boy did not recognise him.
"He would just grab him and boot his arse really hard or just slap him across the head."
There were occasions when her son would stick up for her, particularly when he was a teenager, the woman said.
"We were arguing and our son came running into the sitting room to try and calm the situation down and his father looked at him like he was there to try and take him on, so he grabbed him and headbutted him in the face and almost broke his nose."
She and her husband became addicted to methamphetamine and decided to move to Auckland to enrol in a rehab programme, she said.
The violence stopped for a time but her husband began hitting her again after he started using drugs again.
On one occasion he bundled her and the children into the car and drove them out of town.
"I don't know where it was, it was out there away from all the houses and that, in a paddock, and he gave me a good hiding out there in front of the kids."
On the night her husband died, the woman told the court she found text messages on his phone from another woman and an argument started.
"And then I said to him, 'She's ugly.' And he said, 'Well, you're going to be ugly too.' And he just started hitting me."
The beating happened in front of her baby, she said.
She told the court she was eventually able to pick up the baby and leave the house.
Despite injuries to her face and both eyes swelling, she made the half hour walk around to her son and daughter's home.
"They just broke down and cried when they saw my face. They were just so hurt. They hadn't seen me like that before."
Her husband followed her there, leaving briefly but returning a short time later. This time they locked him out of the house, the woman said.
"He was outside, just walking around the house, just banging on the windows and screaming at us all. Then he went to the front door and he was trying to kick it in and we were all inside just scared as, we didn't know what to do."
Her son was "scared and worried", she said.
"I think he saw it as... He had to try and protect us from his father."
She told her children to call the police and saw the lights of a car leave, she said.
A short time later, her son left the house and she heard scuffling.
She went outside to see her son and husband fighting.
They disappeared around the corner of the house and when she caught up to them, she could see her husband on top of her son, punching him in the face.
"I just tried to pull him back and he was just too strong, too strong... I tried to pull him up and all I could hear was my son's whimpers."
A short time later her husband called out that he had been stabbed.
"And then I just remember my son with his father in his arms, and he was just saying, 'I'm sorry Dad, look what you made me do, I'm sorry, Dad.' And then the lights went on and we saw the blood."
Her husband died at the scene.
The trial continues.