A woman was allegedly assaulted by a Supreme Court judge, leaving her with two large “egg” bumps on her head, after he saw a funny photo she received from a colleague on her phone.
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.
On the evening of October 31, after the woman received a “silly” photo from a work colleague, Geason allegedly became enraged and assaulted her.
The woman’s 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 told Hobart Magistrates Court today.
“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 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 when she regained consciousness.
“I had large eggs on the back of my head from where my head had hit the mantelpiece,” she said.
The woman said the accused allegedly told her, “you’re so pissed, you tripped”.
Defence barrister Tom Percy KC yesterday said the incident was “unfortunate” and that Geason maintained he didn’t strike or injure the complainant.
He suggested she may have sustained a concussion after hitting her head and so her recall of the events on that night may be unreliable.
The woman yesterday 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 barrage 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 court.
The hearing, before Victorian Deputy Chief Magistrate Susan Wakeling, is slated to run for five days.
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