Yuliana Desta has spoken out against former All Black Byron Kelleher.
Desta, a former flight attendant, described a series of abusive incidents during their two-year relationship, beginning three months after they met in Bali in August 2018.
Speaking to legacy media outlet NZ Herald, she said the incidents included attempted suffocation, physical assaults resulting in black eyes and bruises, and a public strangulation in Auckland’s Viaduct in 2019 while celebrating their engagement.
Desta decided to speak out following new accusations of domestic violence reported by French newspaper Le Parisien involving another woman and Kelleher. Kelleher has faced legal issues before, including an assault and wilful damage case in 2020, a guilty verdict for domestic violence in France in 2017, and incidents related to drunk driving and public brawls in 2013 and 2009.
In one notable incident in May 2019, Desta alleges Kelleher assaulted her in Bali, pushing her into a rice field and punching her. She filed a police report, but Kelleher left for New Zealand before police could investigate. Another reported attack occurred in Barcelona in 2019, where Kelleher attempted to suffocate her, and gave her two black eyes. He was arrested but released without charges after Desta withdrew her allegations.
Desta described her relationship with Kelleher as a ‘cycle of abuse’, often blaming herself for the violence and feeling pressured by his parents not to press charges.
She initially remained silent about the abuse but chose to speak out after learning of new allegations against Kelleher. She had warned him that she would go public if he abused another woman.
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Typical Rugby thuggery that is continued off the playing field…!
The Thugby Players make hundreds of thousands, if not millions of $$’s for chasing after a ball, and are playing the game without proper protective equipment as they bash their brains into mush, and then-WE TAXPAYERS HAVE TO PAY FOR THEIR INJURIES VIA ACC!
But, the resentment really starts among the taxpayers when THEY are denied cancer treatments, surgeries for back and knee injuries, etc. as ACC keeps two separate files on ‘clients’, and THEY decide who will be treated (sports participants at all levels) or denied (people injured working on the job, who are ‘politically IN-correct’ and ‘not in the know’…!)
It’s high time that Sports exposure and focus on the same to be reduced, and more attention paid to our situations post-Ardern.
It’s also time to stop treating these thugby grunts as though they are some sort of god!
I wonder how many sports-types would go and serve in the military if called?
NOW! That’s a game of Coliseum proportions; you either live or you die…! But I doubt that any would have the intestinal fortitude to go and enlist or be commissioned; they’re too busy bashing people up at the pubs, shoving girlfriends into snake-infested rice paddys, and then running off to hide from the publicity while the Thugby Union cleans-up their messes!
Their behaviour is thuggish, sophomoric and totally unrefined!