A real estate agent allegedly punched his partner in the stomach and ground his fist into her face, a court has heard.
The defendant, aged in his 50s, has denied two counts of injuring with intent to injure, one of assault with intent to injure and one of assaulting a female, as the Dunedin District Court heard a second day of evidence yesterday.
He was granted name suppression for the duration of the trial.
Since charges were laid in February last year, there have been repeated false starts after the complainant failed to show up at court.
She was eventually arrested and bailed for her behaviour and during her time in the witness box was ruled to be hostile by Judge Michael Crosbie.
The woman said two of the three alleged violent incidents involved the defendant slapping and restraining her, nothing more severe.
Police became involved in November 2017 and spoke to the complainant four days after the last argument she had with her partner.
Photos showed the woman with bruises on her face and upper body.
Constable Brianna O'Connell said she spoke to the complainant at her home and while the woman refused to make a statement, she allowed the officer to take notes while they chatted.
The complainant said she was punched in the stomach, had sore ribs and had numbness to her face where her partner had ''ground his fist'' into it, the officer recorded.
However, when the woman gave evidence on Monday, she denied that was the case and said she would not have let the police take notes.
Const O'Connell, though, said the woman was ''co-operative'' throughout the process.
An earlier alleged incident took place in August after a party in Christchurch.
The complainant told a doctor she had been slapped in the face 50 times but during the trial she claimed that was an exaggeration.
The complainant said she may still have been angry with her partner during the appointment.
But police prosecutor Stewart Sluis raised text messages from the day which showed the couple arranging to meet afterwards.
The defendant called her ''babe'' and added kisses to his messages.
Another witness - a male friend of the complainant - is expected to give evidence she told him about being strangled by the man.
The complainant said no such event had taken place.
She believed her friends, who had given statements to police about disclosures she had made about physical abuse, were trying to force her and the defendant apart.
The trial was adjourned part-heard to resume at the end of April.
