7 Mar 2017

Dome Valley trial: Victim remembers everything, court told

7:17 pm on 7 March 2017

A woman who was left with seven holes in her skull after being bashed with a hammer says her memory of what happened to her is 100 percent.

Entrance to the High Court in Auckland

High Court in Auckland Photo: justice.govt.nz

Wayne Blackett, Cameron Hakeke, Michelle Blom, Nicola Jones and Julie-Anne Torrance are on trial facing charges relating to two separate kidnappings of the woman in May last year.

The woman, who cannot be named, was left on the side of a rural road in the Dome Valley with critical head injuries.

Ms Blom's lawyer, Julie-Anne Kincade, acknowledged the victim had suffered serious injuries and suggested she could not remember much from the night.

But the woman said she remembered everything she has told the court.

Giving evidence by audio-visual link to a closed courtroom in the High Court in Auckland, she agreed with Ms Kincade that she had listened to news items about the case.

She had also searched on the internet and spoken to people about it, but said that had not affected her evidence.

She denied a suggestion from Ms Kincade that she had tailored her evidence to what she had been told by various sources, including police.

Yesterday, she described both of the attacks for the court, saying she was initially lured to Mr Hakeke's flat and two weeks later grabbed by the hair and forced into a car.

  • Woman describes being attacked and left for dead
  • Dome Valley trial: Victim looked 'sad and broken'
  • 'Horrific injuries': Witness describes finding woman on road
  • Dome Valley kidnapping trial under way
  • Guilty plea ahead of Dome Valley kidnapping trial