The war in Waitara
March 31st, 2011 at 8:44 am by David FarrarI had to smile at reading of this Waitara couple:
They haven’t talked for two years and she allegedly stabbed him with a lolly jar, but they still live together.
The saga of a warring Waitara couple continued in court yesterday with the woman vehemently denying that she stormed into her partner’s bedroom, broke his lolly jar and stabbed him with it. …
The jury learned how the two still lived together, sleeping in separate bedrooms, and that Leathart dropped her off at court before giving evidence against her.
From the witness box, Leathart said the two had been together for about 12 years.
Each day he would head inside promptly at 6pm for his dinner, or she would put it in the bin.
So they won’t speak to each other, but she still cooks him dinner, and he dropped her off at court before giving evidence against her.
I think the court should sentence them to remain living together 
March 31st, 2011 at 9:01 am
Is “lolly jar” a euphemism?
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 9:03 am
Hmmm. Sounds very similar to the situation with Phil Goff and the Labour party at the moment.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 9:03 am
Scum that deserve each other.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 9:24 am
lol youre an angry man manolo
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 9:29 am
dime, no, I’m not.
Modesty aside, I consider myself good company, but I don’t like reading about people like this couple and the publicity given to their despicable antics.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 9:45 am
REDBAITER’S ANGER – now it all makes sense.
Poor guy.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 9:49 am
The Judge hearing this case is probably Alan Roberts who is good bloke to have a beer with.
Vote:In the event the charges are proved and a conviction is entered, then the sentence suggested by DPF is something that he would come up with.
March 31st, 2011 at 9:56 am
I get it… “A” is code for “18 year old boy”, “Waitara” is code for “Hataitai”, and “Leathart” is code for the deputy leader of the opposition. In which case I’d flee naked at 5am if an angry Annette King had just stabbed my new boyfriend with a lolly jar.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 9:59 am
RRM
LOL!
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 10:00 am
Nothing to smile at, an awful tale of human degradation and misery.
Its sad that people live that way, really sad.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 10:14 am
In an odd sort of way it seems that they might love each other.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 10:15 am
A pathetic account of alcoholic trouble is a source of humour? Someone, besides the couple, is a little sick.
Why is the media even reporting this situation before it is resolved and there is a judgement to sentence both to rehab and or counselling before one kills the other and then commits suicide?
Be just another: Yes, agencies were aware of this situation, but nobody took it particularly seriously.
But, why would you when the liquor industry is such a strong lobby group, Shortland Street is a nightly class of drink easing every situation, and most people being a little twitchy about anyone mentioning drinking levels.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 10:15 am
lol
I know of couples who have split and lived together for quite a while afterward, but this takes the cake. Definitely funny and sad at the same time. Goes to show how much people are willing to cut off their nose to spite their face. It also made me think – should humans really have nuclear weapons at their disposal?
manolo – for a dude who isn’t angry, you sure make a lot of angry comments.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 10:18 am
Sofia:
The case is in progress. The media are fully entitled to report it. That is their function. They have been reporting cases in progress for perhaps 200 years.
Why is the media reporting it? Because it is news.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 10:30 am
TripeWryter @10:14 – “In an odd sort of way it seems that they might love each other.”
Sad but true. For relationships that seem dysfunctional or toxic to the outside observer; it often does seem to make some sort of warped sense to those who are inside that relationship.
This story is a sad metaphor for a lot of what takes place in Wellington: to the particpants (including media and commentors) it makes some sort of sense, but to those of those looking in from the outside, it is just a tawdry and pointless spectacle.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 10:31 am
I think Tripewryter at 1014 has got it exactly right.
This sounds to me like some long-drawn-out, ongoing, sado-sexual-masochistic-ritualistic relationship.
Each to his/her own is wot I say!
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 10:41 am
TripeWryter, I am fully aware [as I mentioned] the case is in progress.
Taranaki Daily News [via stuff.co] is not reporting it as ‘news’, but as puerile public entertainment, same reason as it appears here. A couple’s nightmare alcoholic shambles is of a quirky irony.
Not unlike _
A man in Cincinnati has pleaded guilty to reckless homicide in the death of his sickly mother, found dead from a blood infection and with rotting bedsores and maggots on her body.
or –
An obese man who sat in the same chair for two years has had to be cut free from it by rescuers.
Two other able-bodied people – one said to be the man’s girlfriend – lived in the house in Bellaire, Ohio, in conditions police described as deplorable.
I am sure both of these items hold vital information for readers here in New Zealand.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 11:11 am
The news story says: “She smashed the jar down hard on the headboard, shattering it, and stabbed at him about five times, he said.
“She was stabbing me with it, aiming it at my face.”
Couldn’t/wouldn’t comment on a case in progress and based on so little information, but sounds like the sort of relationship you often see between two people with serious alcohol issues.
Not that hilarious.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 11:40 am
Schadenfreude should be saved for only the most nasty people imo. But it is peculiar that two people should possess such strong sadistic and masochistic streaks that they would put themselves and each other through all this. So it does have the “wtf?” kind of humour to it. People often will laugh when confronted with confusing and disturbing situations, perhaps to avoid thinking it through. It is the stuff of the human drama/condition though – love and hate often existing at such close proximity.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 11:44 am
Sofia:
It’s like this … news is that which is interesting and important to people. Now, you might say, and indeed you do, that these cases, particularly the American ones you cited, might not be important to us here at the bottom of the South Pacific.
But they are interesting. The quirky, the different, the unusual, the bizarre, anything out of the ordinary is news. These are stories so different that they get shared. A reporter who didn’t pick up the story, the newspaper that didn’t run it, the wire service that didn’t pick it up and share it with the rest of the world would not last long.
You might not like it, and you might think Stuff is being puerile, but there it is. As far as I know they’re not breaking any law nor are they in breach of any conventions on taste.
Of the Waitara couple: what tells for me more than the coverage of the case is the photos of the pair of them walking across the street together, and being in the car together. Hence my first comment.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 1:18 pm
I read this with mounting disbelief. I mean who, in their right minds would want to live in that kind of environment unless forced to?
I mean, Waitara,
FFS. . . . .
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 2:45 pm
It sounds like Dot and Don from Featherston. I wondered where they had moved to.
But seriously, there are a lot of relationships like this. People that have a common problem also knowing they couldn’t find anyone else to live with. And in their own way they like each other. And ever relationship has some of these elements present.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Alex, were in the pub a month or so ago and three blokes walked in dressed in shorts and singlets, looked like they had had a good weekend. One of the guys I was drinking with kept say he new one of them but couldn’t remember where he had seen him. Meanwhile his boss was pissing himself with laughter. These blokes had a beer and left. This guy turned to his boss and said what the fuck you laughing at. The boss said, you dumb arse that was judge Roberts who threw the book at you.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 6:07 pm
“Love each other?” like fuck they do. They both like giving each other the bash. The only thing these shitbags love is the ‘System’ that allows their disfunctional behaviour. Both arsewipes should be shot with a ball of ther own shit.
Vote:Next time the Social Services ask the Govt for more money, you will know why. To support more of the same
March 31st, 2011 at 8:33 pm
In general terms: people stay in abusive relationships for all kinds of reasons, from
‘for the sake of the kids’
to financial (can’t afford to live on one income/can’t afford to split their assets),
to ‘anything’s better than living alone’
to ‘no one else would have me’
to ‘he/she’s lovely MOST of the time…’
to ‘no one else understands him/her like I do’
to blaming themselves for setting the other person off (conditioned by the abuser to believe it’s their fault)…
I saw a woman some years ago didn’t want to give evidence against the bloke who beat her up (while drunk) for miscarrying their baby – wouldn’t speak out because they’d since reconciled.
Where it’s mutually destructive, maybe it’s a case that they each like a ‘strong’ partner rather than a doormat.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 9:40 pm
Sofia is right. It is news only up to the point that it descends into media facilitated voyeurism.
Vote:March 31st, 2011 at 10:26 pm
It’s hard to care
Vote: