The former manager of Remarkables Lodge, near Queenstown, has been acquitted of charges he twice assaulted his partner in late 2015.
Alan Bruce Leithbridge (50), a real estate manager who is now living in Christchurch, faced two charges of male assaulting a female after the complainant, Amanda Kate Archer, told police about incidents at the lodge on October 28 and November 9 of that year.
In a judge-alone trial heard by Judge Mark Callaghan in the Queenstown District Court over two days last week, the court heard how the former couple co-managed the lodge, which is on the Kingston Rd near the Jacks Point settlement.
Summarising Ms Archer's evidence, Judge Callaghan said she alleged the defendant entered the lodge's kitchen on October 28 in a ''staunch and angry'' mood, grabbed her by the arms and shook her.
The couple were estranged at the time. She had taken photos of her injuries.
In the second incident, which occurred after midnight on November 9, Ms Archer claimed that after she went to the lodge's kitchen to collect food for a picnic the next day, Leithbridge had ''attacked'' her, put her in a ''sleep hold'' and punched her face from behind.
She took photos of her injuries, which included a black eye, and went to police four days later.
During cross-examination she denied having a drinking problem, but a former lodge employee gave evidence that Ms Archer had been drinking in the six months leading up to the incidents.
Leithbridge's evidence was that ''nothing'' happened on October 28, as he had been busy making work-related phone calls.
In the second incident, he had been woken by banging and crashing in the kitchen, and got up to see Ms Archer filling a box with food he needed for preparing guests' breakfast in the morning.
As she walked past him to leave, they came into contact and the box fell to the floor, and she began hitting the defendant in the back and shoulders.
When her attack continued while they were back on their feet, he had put her in a restraining ''bear hug''.
Judge Callaghan said he had found it ''extremely difficult'' to reconcile the defendant's version of events with the complainant's.
Given Ms Archer's description of how the defendant had held her during the second incident, he could not see how he had struck her in the eye.
He acquitted Leithbridge on the grounds he could not be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant had assaulted the complainant on either occasion.
