A woman and an accused man exchanged letters and telephone calls in the months after their relationship broke down and a series of violent incidents including locking her in a dog cage and hosing her down.
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Bradley Lawrence Mykael Gee, 30, of Burnie, has pleaded not guilty to persistent family violence against his partner between May 2018 to June 2019.
A Supreme Court jury heard recordings of 14 phone calls between the pair when he was on remand in Risdon Prison between December 4-18, 2019. The relationship finished in June 2019
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The jury heard the woman give evidence that she loved him a lot and that part of her felt guilty about the court proceedings.
In the phone calls, Mr Gee urges the woman to say she signed the statements to police about the violence under duress.
The jury also heard excerpts from seven letters that the woman wrote to Mr Gee between March and July 2020.
"I will love you until eternity," she wrote on April 14.
In another letter she wrote "I know I started by wanting to hurt you in one of the ways you hurt me".
She said in May that she was disappointed he had not admitted anything.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel Julia Ker the woman agreed that she had lied to the court when she said her last contact with Mr Gee was before Christmas 2019.
"He [Mr Gee] said he didn't want me to [reveal the contact]," she said.
The woman agreed that she had made an application for victims of crime compensation.
However, she denied that the possibility of getting a payout was the reason she was continuing the complaints of violence.
She also denied that the case was because she was angry due to him being unfaithful.
The woman's father gave evidence that he had seen a burn mark on his daughter's chest on Christmas Eve 2018 and asked her how she got it.
"She said she dropped her cigarette," he said.
"I said 'that Gee didn't do it did he' and she said no and that where we left the conversation," the man said.
Under cross-examination, he said it was a burn mark not merely a red mark.
Crown Prosecutor Lisa Pennington asked the woman why she gave a false account to her father and she said it because she didn't want to ruin Christmas.
The jury has heard that the woman wore long-sleeved shirts and pants to cover bruises and rarely sought medical treatment.
Ms Ker cross-examined the woman about eight incidents alleged by the Crown including several assaults, two woundings and one deprivation of liberty.
The woman denied a suggestion that a blow to her head with a torch was the result of Mr Gee slipping while up in a tree spotlighting wallaby and the torch hitting her on the head.
She told Ms Ker that when locked in a dog pen she would have had no chance of untying a rope around the gate.
"He's [Mr Gee] a fisherman," she said.
"I suggest the entire incident involving the dog pen and hosing is a fabrication?" Ms Ker asked.
"I disagree with that," the woman said. The trial continues on Thursday.
Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
