Durban - A battered woman has gone to the High Court seeking damages of R450 000 from her ex-boyfriend who beat her up several times, smashing her head against walls, head-butting and strangling her.
The civil application was launched after the State withdrew criminal charges against him, as often happens in these matters.
“This is a not a means for her to make money,” her attorney, Jonathan Brookes, said on Wednesday.
“It is being done with the express purpose of showing her abuser that he cannot simply walk away. Should we get the order, it will send a strong message to him and anyone else like him that not only are there potential criminal consequences of their actions, but they could be made to pay, literally, for the abuse,” he said.
When the matter came before Durban High Court Judge Peter Olsen on Wednesday he indicated he would grant judgment in her favour but asked for submissions to substantiate the amount of her claim.
He said the fact that her ex-boyfriend was not at court and could not be traced meant he had conceded liability because he was aware of the claim.
In her affidavit, the 27-year-old sales consultant described in detail how her boyfriend, a personal trainer, violently attacked her four times in just more than a year.
The Mercury is withholding the names to protect the woman, who says she had to seek help from a psychologist after the attacks.
The woman says that the first incident occurred in May 2012 when, after an argument, he jabbed his finger in her face, grabbed her by her neck and pushed her against the wall.
“I was petrified. He was so much larger than me, so I apologised profusely. He released me saying he was sorry but warned me not to provoke him again.”
In January the following year – after he had been on a six-week course of steroids – he attacked her again while they ate dinner, pushing food into her face and then pushing her around the room “in a complete rage”.
She fled to the bathroom, but he followed her and smashed her head against the wall so hard she blacked out. When she regained consciousness he told her “it’s not that bad”, ordered her leave their home and head-butted her in the eye as he was pushing her out the door.
“I broke down mentally … I went back inside and he calmed down. We agreed that I would stay and we would work on our relationship. I told him he needed help, but he said ‘weed is my medicine’.”
The following month when she complained because he said he was going out to buy dagga, he pulled her hair. She retaliated by throwing the television remote control at him. It missed, but it enraged him and he head-butted her again.
The final straw was in March last year when, after another course of steroids, he started an argument, calling her family “rich snobs”.
“He started swearing and calling me horrible names. He pushed my face with his hand so hard my neck snapped back. I slapped him out of anger and then he head-butted me, threw me on the floor and started kicking me.”
She said she began screaming “because I genuinely feared for my life”, and in an attempt to stop her he smacked her across her face, threw her on the bed, hit her legs and then grabbed her around the throat.
“I had no option but to stop. He let me go and then grabbed my face and made me look at him in the eyes and said: ‘I am sorry I slapped you … will you forgive me?’”
She left, but as she tried to drive away, he tried to open the car door to drag her out. He then beat his fists on the window. She went to her parents. The next day he sent her a message saying he was sorry, “but it is my fault because I provoked him”.
With her parents she went to the police station and laid charges. She then went to hospital where a report was made of her injuries. The charges were withdrawn last year.
Because of this, she said, she was entitled to damages for actual physical and psychological injury and “for violation of my constitutional right to freedom from all forms of violence, regardless of whether it came from a public or private source”.
According to the sheriff, the summons was served on a manager at the man’s gym.
The man instructed lawyers to defend the matter, but he did not file any pleadings and the lawyers withdrew.
The Legal Resources Centre’s Faathima Mahomed said the claim was the victim’s only recourse to justice, as there were “many obstacles in getting these cases before the courts”.
The matter will be back in court next month.
The Mercury