A woman's recollection of a Supreme Court judge flying into a jealous rage and allegedly assaulting her, after finding a funny photo from a colleague on her phone, has been called into question.
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The woman gave evidence on Tuesday in a Hobart Magistrates Court hearing over her alleged "controlling and coercive" relationship with Justice Gregory Geason.
The 62-year-old is accused of assaulting, emotionally abusing and intimidating the woman throughout their relationship between April and November 2023.
He has pleaded not guilty to one count of emotional abuse or intimidation and one count of common assault.
Geason was alleged to have entered a "jealous rage" on the evening of October 31 after discovering a "silly" photo from the woman's work colleague on her phone.
The colleague had sent her a photo of him pulling a funny face after earlier checking in on her because she hadn't gone to work that day.
"I didn't realise Greg was standing behind me," she said.
"He said, 'what the f***, who is this, who is this sending you these messages'?"
Geason allegedly grabbed the phone and started going through all her texts, including deleted ones, getting increasingly angry, the woman said on Tuesday.
"He got angrier and screamed, 'who is this person, you're disgusting, you're a slut'," she recalled.
The woman attempted to de-escalate the situation after he went to his home office by telling him nothing was going on with the colleague.
"He stood up and grabbed me by the arms really tightly and really painful, shaking me, saying how disgusting I was," she said.
The woman alleged Geason began "punching" her chest and breasts before he pushed her as she attempted to get away.
"I remember flying backwards with such force and hitting my head on the mantelpiece," she said.
She heard a "loud crack" in her head before blacking out and recalled her head "screaming in pain" thinking her skull had broken.
"I had large eggs on the back of my head from where my head had hit the mantelpiece," she said.
The woman said Geason told her, "you're so pissed, you tripped" and pretended her bruises weren't there the next day.
She left the home they shared two days later and flew back to her family in Victoria where she was admitted to the Bendigo Hospital.
Defence barrister Tom Percy KC suggested the woman's recollection of events was inaccurate, recounting a story of when Geason became angry after finding out a male friend gifted the woman books for her birthday.
The accused judge allegedly yelled and threw clothes violently on the floor and while she told the court there was no physical violence, it made her feel intimidated.
The woman denied Geason had physically hit her, except the incident on October 31.
Doctor's notes from the hospital revealed she said Geason had hit her on two other occasions, Mr Percy read to the court.
"I was concussed, traumatised and the doctor's note-taking wasn't the best and my mother was freaking out in a corner," she said.
"My memories of the assault had come back."
Mr Percy questioned her evidence on Tuesday where she described Geason punching her, while her police statement described it as a "hit".
"You have just embellished what you told police to make it look worse," Mr Percy put to the woman, which she denied.
The woman on Monday accused Geason of subjecting her to a relentless barrage of "venomous" verbal abuse after he was unable to track her movements through her phone.
He would bombard her with texts, email her personal and work emails and call her to find out where she was when she turned off the Find My Friends feature on the phone he had gifted her, she told the court.
The woman is expected to conclude her evidence on Wednesday with the hearing, before Victorian Deputy Chief Magistrate Susan Wakeling, slated to run for a week.
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Australian Associated Press
