Tony Veitch to appear in court 9am tomorrow

[ Update see below for his sentence]
The depositions hearing against Tony Veitch will not proceed as planned on Monday, but no-one is saying why. Instead Veitch will appear in court tomorrow morning. He was charged with assaulting his partner.
TVNZ has the possible legal options:

-Veitch could be pleading guilty to all the charges.

-Veitch could accept that there is a case to answer, will plead not guilty and the matter will go straight to trial.

-The hearing may not take place because one or more witnesses are not available.

-The hearing may not take place due to police withdrawing all charges.

-The hearing is unnecessary, due to police replacing existing charges with lesser ones, and a plea bargain has been negotiated.

I'm wondering if it will be either a plea bargain or a withdrawal of charges. He wont go to jail.

UPDATE He pleaded guilty under a plea bargain although seven charges were dropped. Sentenced to nine months supervision and 300 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine. Probably the only person to to lose his job over community service and a fine - before being sentenced.

It's good that is is now over. Let him get on with his life. He's already lost $100,000 to his former partner. Do you think he deserved his sentence?

Police were trawling over Veitch

As expected, police have arrested Tony Veitch and charged him with assault. As they should. But there are seven charges ranging from 2002-2006.

The only reason that he has been charged with multiple counts is because police were trawling for trouble because the guy was a household name.

Peters to sue Dominion Post

Winston Peters is going to sue over reports this week that he got money from a wealthy family to pay his legal bills.

I wonder which family will pay this bill - and whether Peters will comply with the Cabinet Manual this time.

Also, the Prime Minister has given her lawyers something else to do.Wonder if she'll go to Crown Law who will tell her what she wants to hear not what she should hear? Clark says says allegations about Mr Peters' handling of political donations do not stop him from performing his ministerial responsibilities - but then Tony Veitch's assault didn't stop him from performing his broadcasting responsibilities either - he was arguably better at his job than Peters is at his - and Helen Clark was pretty happy to see him gone.

Disgraceful treatment by media

I've just arrived back from holiday and that story won't go away. Tony Veitch, if the Dominion Post is to be believed, is not the first TV personality to break his partner's back. But he is the only one who has been hung out to dry by the media and the public jury based on something he hasn't said.

I think the way that Tony Veitch has been treated by the media and Women's Refuge has been disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful. If this is a reflection of the state of journalism in this country then its is not just the sub editing that is substandard.

It is clear that the media wanted blood. Veitch has had no natural justice. He has resigned from his jobs, his former partner has laid an assault complaint two years after she was assaulted - not because she was injured, but because her lawyers have reacted to media coverage and suggested she press charges. She should have pressed charges two years ago.

But Veitch is not answerable to the media - he is entitled to his presumptions of innocence until he is investigated and probably charged and convicted. But until now he has had no natural justice. Why should anyone be fair game before a court appearance?

Women's Refuge is weighing in and although chief executive Heather Henare has not met Tony Veitch, she refers to him as "Tony" as if he was to her a friend or someone she knew.

What Tony understands as being the right thing to say and do is still not in touch with complete reality and accepting full and unconditional responsibility

How does she know that he has not taken "full responsibility" - everything she knows is based on hearsay.

Veitch's reported assault sounded bad enough. So did Derek Fox's fist fight with his former partner. And not much was said about Sean Plunket's conviction - reported the same day on the same paper as the breaking Veitch story - after driving at twice the legal limit. Or " Lion Man" Craig Busch, who broke his partners back in an assault , paid her compensation, was convicted and is still on TV. Or the NZ Olympic boxer who was allowed to represent his country after beating his partner. And it's not lost on me that the Minister responsible for TVNZ is Tau-thumper Trevor Mallard, who ended up in court and kept his job. He's been pretty quiet lately.

Veitch suspended from Radio Sport

Tony Veitch has been suspended from Radio Sport while it investigates the assault on his former partner. They should have done this two years ago.Radio Sport is just pandering to media coverage and is investigating it not because it is serious, but because the media has covered it and they don't want an employee to bring them into disrepute.

How hypocritical. If it was worth investigating, one wonders why Radio Sport didn't investigate it two years ago when it happened. If they've known for longer, it's their own actions, (or more correctly, lack thereof) that has bought them into disrepute. The fact that it is doing an investigation has nothing to do with the seriousness of the assault, it is to look nice and to be seen as not condoning domestic violence.

Women's Refuge has stated that there are two levels of justice - one for the rich who can avoid trouble and one for the poor who get prosecuted.

The other side of the coin is that if Veitch was not a celebrity he most likely would not have been suspended from his job even if he was convicted.

In this case Veitch is not even prosecuted - if he was convicted he no doubt would have had name suppression - and the assault happened two years ago.

Look, get the police to prosecute the man and give him the punishment/sentence he deserves, or leave him alone and stop crucifying him by media. That's not OK either. All Blacks have been prosecuted and convicted for domestic violence and continued playing.

Why are TV celebrities any different?