Lovers’ tiff ends in court

File photo

File photo

Published Apr 29, 2014

Share

Pretoria - A Mooikloof Ridge Estate woman is claiming R758 000 in damages from her former lover, whom she alleges tried to strangle her, threatened to assault her with a heavy-duty torch and smashed her cellphone.

Celeste Thiart, 38, said in papers before the Pretoria High Court that she suffered injuries during an altercation with Shamus Kreuger and had to miss out on several gym and cycling sessions.

She claimed Kreuger had assaulted her on January 17, 2011, at his former home in Centurion. He now lives in Sandton.

According to her, he jumped on her leg in “an attempt to break it” and pushed her around.

She said she had to receive medical treatment for swelling to her head and forehead, sprained wrist joints, ligament injuries to her right knee and multiple bruises to her wrists.

She said she had to endure pain and suffering, and was temporarily disabled and could not make use of her membership at the gym.

Her claim includes R200 000 for “ strangulation”, R8 085 for loss of gym membership fees, R4 800 for her smashed Blackberry cellphone, and R1 818 for her car keys which were “thrown away” by her former lover.

Thiart also claimed that Kreuger badmouthed her and told her she had a “fat behind”.

She stated that owing to the assault she suffered pain for months afterwards when she trained and worked out.

She said the trauma and emotional stress caused by the assault will remain with her for the rest of her life.

Kreuger vehemently denied the allegations and claimed Thiart was the aggressor.

He applied for an interdict preventing Thiart from harassing him.

He claimed she suffered the injuries when she ran in front of her own moving car and when she fell from her bicycle during a triathlon.

Kreuger, in a lengthy statement before court, said they were engaged, but broke it off because of personal differences although they saw each other on and off.

Before the alleged incident they had lovely dinners two nights in a row and he agreed to assist her during a triathlon, he said. During this event she suffered some injuries and he took her home and “tended to her sore feet and legs”.

They spent a “nice” evening together, but the next day Thiart became difficult and argumentative.

When she returned from work, she became abusive and threw his wet clothes off his clothes horse, he said. He used “minimum force” to push her towards the front door and “gently threw her phone and car keys out of the front door as well”.

As his car was parked in front of the garage, he jogged to the police station to get help. Thiart also arrived at the police station, saying she could not find her car keys. A policeman agreed to accompany them to her house, as she said she had a spare set of keys there.

Kreuger said that back at his house they pushed her car out of the way, so that he could get his car out of the garage. She jumped in front of the moving vehicle and injured her leg, he said.

Only later, while out of town, did he hear that she had laid a charge of assault against him.

He, in turn, laid a charge of malicious damage to property against her, claiming she broke items in his house when she became violent and he “gently” nudged her out of his house.

It is not clear from court papers what happened to these charges.

The damages claim and Kreuger’s counter claim for a protection order against Thiart were postponed indefinitely by the court.

Pretoria News

Related Topics: