The defended hearing for Okaytime Marsters, who is facing charges of three counts of assault on a female, and one charge of assault with intent to injure continues at the High Court in Avarua today.

He is being trialled by a jury and appears before Justice Colin Doherty.

He is represented by defence counsel Michelle Tangimama who is being assisted by Norman George.

Crown prosecutors include senior prosecutor Jamie Crawford and Lucinda Rishworth.

Crown Law completed their state witnesses yesterday and this included the victim in the matter.

As an opening for the defence witness, defence lawyer Tangimama told the jury that the two

witnesses from the Crown were inconsistent.

She said these were two sisters (witnesses) who created and exaggerated the truth. She claimed that the two had ganged up on the defendant, creating a story on about a crime that the defendant supposedly committed.

She said one of the witnesses, the victim’s sister, had videos of the events leading up to February 28, 2022 but failed to video the moment the defendant was accused of committing the crime by hitting the victim.

She claimed the victim and her sister’s statements were inconsistent, they exaggerated, were biased and fumed with emotion towards the defendant.

Yesterday, the defendant Marsters took the stand.

When asked if he had a good relationship with the victim and siblings, he said he believed he did.

He said on February 28, 2022 he believed the complainant and other siblings broke into their father’s room while he was asleep.

He said he placed a new lock on the premises and it was broken again.

He had attempted to call the police three times but was not successful. But he said he did speak to a police officer on the Sunday.

Earlier yesterday, Crown witness Temaria Marsters told the Court he was in the house when the offence happened and he heard the victim scream and say ‘you hit me’ to the defendant.

Defence lawyer Tangimama asked if he exaggerated the incident, he said: “Well the problem is about aunty and uncle. I believe the family house is a church house.”

When asked if he saw the defendant punch the victim, he replied it happened too fast.

Referring to the police statement, she said the witness had said something different to the jury and he was outside when the incident happened, he replied that he was outside and could see everything happening.

Tangimama said he had made up the whole story because when asked to if he was outside the house, he said no. The trial continues today.