the essential
Former New Zealand international and former Stade Toulousain player (97 matches) Byron Kelleher was convicted this Monday, May 6 by the Paris judicial court for domestic violence against his ex-partner. The ex-player, now 47 years old, “doesn’t recognize [t] not the facts.”
Twice crowned French champion (2008, 2011) and once European champion (2010) with Stade Toulousain, former scrum half Byron Kelleher was sentenced to 6 months in prison with a two-year probationary suspension by the Paris judicial court.
He wanted to defend himself as best he could. “In our culture, women come before everyone else,” he told the judge. These words did not convince the court which declared Byron Kelleher, 47, guilty of the facts with which he was accused. He will also have to pay a fine of 1,000 euros and pay 800 euros to his ex-partner for moral damage.
In June 2023, under the influence of alcohol – which he denies – the former All Blacks (57 caps) attacked his partner and mother of their son. Insults, blows to the face and to the torso echo the president of the 24th chamber while exposing the facts. The complainant even says that her companion dragged her down a corridor while pulling her hair.
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“I don’t recognize the facts,” replies Byron Kelleher. “That’s not true,” he insists. The former player also denies having “a problem with alcohol”. “I drink like everyone else drinks,” he says. On the evening of the events, he admitted to having simply “drank a few glasses of rosé wine” with a friend.
“He scares me”
Her ex-partner explains that she had to take refuge in the bathroom then in the toilet to escape the blows. According to the ex-rugby player, it was his wife who attacked him. He only defended himself by grabbing her wrists. “She knocked out my tooth,” he complains.
His ex-partner who filed a complaint more than a month after the events told the witness box that she “saw herself die”. “He scares me,” she said. Other acts of violence, not upheld by the court, would have taken place, in particular during a stay of the couple on Mauritius or even in Monaco.
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My client “wants above all to protect herself and her son,” argued the plaintiff’s lawyer, Me Thibaut Rouffiac. The prosecutor considered the ex-rugby player’s comments “not coherent, not convincing and not relevant”.
For the ex-rugby player’s lawyer, Me Emmanuelle Jallifier-Verne, the complainant was “not always very nice” towards her client, a “living rugby legend”. According to the lawyer, their relationship was based on money. “Madame loved beauty, luxury,” she said. The lawyer highlights “the kindness” and “the Mahori values” of Byron Kelleher.
“Certainly, there was an argument,” the lawyer concedes, “but in no way was there violence.” The couple met in Toulouse in 2010. A son was born from their union in 2015 but the couple separated shortly after the birth of the child, already due, according to the complainant, to “verbal and physical violence “.
Other problems with the law
Mr. Kelleher returned to New Zealand before returning to France in February 2022 and resuming life together with his partner. According to her, the violence resumed just a month after her return to France.
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Byron Kelleher already had trouble with the law in 2009 following a brawl that occurred in Toulouse after a collision while he was driving under the influence of alcohol. He was also briefly placed in police custody in October 2013 for “drunk driving” in Bordeaux.
In 2017, he was fined 200 euros for damage and domestic violence committed in 2016 with another woman.
