Police could investigate Veitch with no complaint

LAWRENCE SMITH/Sunday News

UNDER PRESSURE: Tony Veitch pictured in Auckland today. The Radio Sport and TVNZ presenter is under scrutiny following revelations he assaulted his former partner.

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 Police say they could investigate an assault by television presenter Tony Veitch on his former partner without an official complaint, but it would be difficult.

Veitch's assault on his former partner was so vicious that he broke her back in four places.

Veitch took leave from his Radio Sport breakfast show yesterday. He has also agreed to stand down from his presenting roles at TVNZ.

His sidelining follows revelations in The Dominion Post that he secretly agreed to pay former partner Kristin Dunne-Powell more than $100,000 in return for her silence about the incident.

Auckland police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty said police could investigate the allegations, but they would need some evidence.

"But who would know, unless you got that from the complainant?"

She said a complainant would add weight to any prosecution.

Veitch, 34, has made no comment on the secret payout and the 2006 assault, in which he repeatedly kicked Ms Dunne-Powell, fracturing her vertebrae in four places and inflicting a head injury.

She spent months away from her job as Vodafone's general manager of marketing, had a breakdown and was later forced to quit work.

A former Vodafone colleague said Veitch had kicked his former lover as she lay on the floor of his bedroom. "He kicked her so hard he broke four vertebrae ... She couldn't walk.

"She went from a lovely sporty girl to someone who lost a lot of back muscle. She was seriously weakened."

It is also understood that it was hours before Ms Dunne-Powell, 33, arrived at hospital in Auckland.

She was in a wheelchair for some time but the pair agreed to stick to a story that she had fallen on the stairs, another source said early this week.

Ms Dunne-Powell, who is now chief operating officer of broadband firm Woosh, did not file a complaint with police.

Veitch, who returned from a two-week holiday in Fiji at the weekend, was bunkered down last night in his $1.8 million Herne Bay villa.

Pressure is still mounting on TVNZ to disclose how long management knew about the assault.

After finishing his radio show yesterday morning, Veitch spent three hours visiting a lawyer, accompanied by his wife, Zoe Halford.

TVNZ and The Radio Network, which owns Radio Sport, said yesterday afternoon that Veitch would step down while the allegations were "reviewed".

Meanwhile, a group has been formed on social networking site Facebook, calling for people to boycott media appearances by Veitch. Sixty-seven people had joined the group by this morning.

- With NZPA

- © Fairfax NZ News