Hayden Todd

After a 90-minute beating that came close to killing his victim, a kickboxer calmly prepared to leave for training. That was the last straw.

[What’s Up](http://www.whatsup.co.nz/)0800 942 8787 (for 5 to 18-year-olds). [Muay Thai kickboxing](https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/100014603/muay-thai-in-nz---freak-accident-shines-spotlight-on-combat-sport), saying she knows “a lot of really amazing men” in the sport - although she worries about vulnerable people going into the sport without proper mentoring. [Kidsline](http://www.kidsline.org.nz/Home_312.aspx)0800 54 37 54 for people up to 18 years old. [Women’s Refuge](https://womensrefuge.org.nz/contact/find-your-local-refuge/)0800 733 843 [Shine](https://www.2shine.org.nz/get-help/helpline)Free call 0508 744 633 between 9am and 11pm (for men and women) [1737, Need to talk?](https://www.1737.org.nz/)Free call or text 1737 to talk to a trained counsellor. That exhaustion and the level of responsibility of being the protector I had been made to feel, compounded into what seemed like a problem with no solution.” She also was not granted a protection order until after sentencing – something she thinks should have been “almost automatically granted with these types of charges”. I used to be a fast learner, used to be able to take in information really quickly. He said interviewing witnesses may have alerted Todd to the complaint. But police did not gather evidence from the house where the assault took place, she says, and did not interview Todd or key witnesses for months afterwards. But the woman is determined to tell her story of sustained abuse at Todd's hands, in the hope that others might benefit from what she's learned about the police and court process. Minutes before, Todd had [suffocated her](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/122908369/half-of-people-charged-with-nonfatal-strangulation-suffocation-escape-conviction), covering her mouth with a scrunched-up t-shirt as he told her she would never see her child again. His emotional state – which she now understands as manipulation – made it difficult for her to break free of Todd's influence.