In short:
Tasmanian Supreme Court judge Gregory Geason is facing a hearing in the Hobart Magistrates Court after pleading not guilty to assault and emotional abuse or intimidation.
The court has heard he allegedly subjected a woman to controlling and intimidating behaviour, and tracked her using a phone app.
What’s next?
The hearing is set down for up to seven days.
A court has heard allegations that a Tasmanian Supreme Court judge would regularly go into “a rage” at a woman, track her movements, monitor her calls and messages, and physically assault her.
Justice Gregory Geason is appearing before a hearing in the Hobart Magistrates Court after pleading not guilty to a charge each of assault and emotional abuse or intimidation.
The case is being heard by visiting Victorian deputy chief magistrate Susan Wakeling, and prosecuted by Victorian crown prosecutor Neill Hutton.
In his opening comments, Mr Hutton detailed Mr Geason’s course of alleged conduct over months, including allegations of controlling and intimidating behaviour towards a woman.
This included allegations of aggression, with Mr Hutton telling the court of a range of insults that Mr Geason would level at the woman.
Mr Hutton alleged that there was a pattern of conduct.
“She said it was like there was a flip side to him. He could be charming and nice, and then suddenly flip and be screaming at her,” he told the court.
“On many occasions the accused would drink too much, become nasty and begin abusing her, calling her names after only a few glasses of wine.”
Mr Geason allegedly assaulted the woman in his home in October.
The court heard he allegedly became jealous and enraged, snatched the woman’s phone, read all her messages and her deleted messages, and then grabbed both her arms “tightly” and squeezed “very hard”.
“He hit her to the chest with his hands a few times … he then suddenly pushed her chest to cause her to stumble backwards and hit her head,” Mr Hutton told the court.
“She had significant bruising.
“He said: ‘you bruise easily’. He also said ‘it was because I had too much to drink on an empty stomach’.”
After the alleged assault, the court heard Mr Geason googled, “help me, I’m abusive” and “best songs to say sorry”.
Defence counsel Tom Percy KC described “an unfortunate confrontation” that was a result of alcohol.
“At no time did he deliberately strike or injure the complainant,” he said.
Defendant became ‘verbally nasty’, woman says
The woman, whose identity has been suppressed by the court, gave evidence on Monday, and described how Mr Geason’s behaviour would change when he drank white wine.
“When he drank too much white wine he could become quite verbally nasty,” she told the court.
“It was like a character change. He would just become very hateful and spiteful towards me.
“Sometimes he would just call me ‘slut’ time and time and time again for no reason at all.”
The woman told the court that he used this insult regularly, and on one occasion she was left crying on a park bench while he continued to yell at her.
She told the court that she was allegedly subjected to verbal abuse by Mr Geason “maybe 20 or 30 times”.
Woman tracked using phone, lawyers allege
The court also heard allegations that Mr Geason tracked the woman using her phone.
The court heard that, several weeks after the alleged assault, a person was using the woman’s headphones interstate.
Mr Hutton told the court that the person saw Mr Geason, they made “eye contact”, and then both walked away.
“The inference is the accused was using the app to find the headphones, [to] try to find [the woman],” he said.
It followed earlier allegations that Mr Geason had known the woman’s location at various times.
Mr Percy said he disputed that Mr Geason engaged in a “course of conduct” towards the woman.
The hearing is set down for up to seven days.
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