There is no place in New Zealand for wife beaters, just like there is no place in politics for men who kick in doors and use the family court for custody battles over dogs either.
A preacher who viciously beat his wife for three years, including gouging her eye blind, has lost his fight against deportation.
Reti Falaniko, a preacher at the Penrose Assembly of God church in Auckland, pleaded guilty in 2010 to 11 offences of varying severity, all committed against his wife between January 2004 and May 2008.
Falaniko argued he should not have been deported because he had had a subcutaneous defibrillator – like a pacemaker – implanted in 2006 following a heart attack. He argued he could not get the pacemaker serviced in his native Samoa if there was a problem.
The Immigration and Protection Tribunal, which heard Falaniko’s appeal, said his violence against his wife began four months after they were married in October 2003.
Falaniko felt his wife “did not publicly give him the respect he felt ought to be accorded to his status as a preacher”.





