‘I hopped into bed and started crying’: Judge Gregory Geason continues his defence in DV case

UPDATED: “I was strip searched and held in the cells for six hours.” Tasmanian judge Gregory Geason has returned to court to defend himself against domestic violence allegations.

Justice Gregory Geason leaving court last week. Picture: Linda Higginson.

A Tasmanian judge accused of assaulting a former partner admits he sent her a text message afterwards saying “I get that I f…ed up” and searched the internet for terms like “how to deal with anger”.

But Gregory Geason, 63, has denied any of this was an admission of guilt.

Justice Geason returned to the witness stand in the Hobart Magistrates Court on Monday to defend himself against criminal charges – the first time in Tasmanian history a judge has found themself in such a situation.

He has pleaded not guilty to one charge of common assault, and one charge of emotional abuse or intimidation, against a former partner in 2023.

While giving evidence, Justice Geason said a text to the woman after the alleged violence on October 31 last year was not an apology for an assault, but for being “immature” and causing a situation to escalate.

Justice Geason admitted that on the night in question, he had looked through the woman’s phone after she received a “selfie” photograph from a male colleague.

However, he said he never hit or pushed the woman, that “no punches were thrown”, and that he did not cause her to hit the back of her head on a mantelpiece in his Battery Point home.

Justice Geason said he did not recall searching the internet after the alleged assault for the term “help me, I’m abusive” or “how to stop being an abusive person in 10 steps”, and that this could have been a search made by a family member or friend.

He admitted he searched a number of terms like “easy bruising” and “how to get domestic violence charges dropped – a step-by-step guide”, but these weren’t an admission of guilt, but rather his attempts to find help given the allegations against him.

After he was issued with a restraining order blocking him from contacting the woman, Justice Geason admitted he travelled interstate and took pictures of her house – but denied he went there to contact her.

He said he also visited areas they’d been to together, including a lake and a rivulet, as “part of the grieving process”, for the “reliving of old times”, and to help him “process the loss”.

“Unless you’re of that sentimental bent, I don’t suppose it would resonate,” he told the court.

Also on Monday, Justice Geason said he was “stripsearched and held in the cells for six hours” after police charged him with domestic violence.

Justice Geason also continued telling his version of events concerning the alleged assault, claiming that he had sat down to be in a “safe space”, holding his open palm out in a stop gesture when the woman approached him.

“I didn’t use force and (she) didn’t use force, but her leaning over me and my putting my hand up, does mean there was a level of force, logically,” he said.

He said the woman, who he claimed “had a lot to drink”, then brushed her left cheek on the mantelpiece before falling on her bottom and hitting the back of her head on a table.

He said he helped her back onto her feet before he “hopped into bed” and “started crying”.

“I felt it was my poor response, my immature response to a situation arising from those phone messages and I felt I could have handled it much better, and that’s why I cried.”

Under cross-examination from prosecutor Neill Hutton, Justice Geason denied he had in fact assaulted the woman last October.

“Can I suggest all of that is a lie that you have designed to cover up the evidence,” Mr Hutton said.

Justice Geason replied that it was “absolutely the truth”.

Justice Geason also reiterated his dislike for his profession as a judge and that he would have been “happy to walk away from it any day you like”.

“It’s not the job people think it is,” he said.

Justice Geason is currently on voluntary leave from his role at the Supreme Court of Tasmania.

Currently, a judge at Justice Geason’s level commands a salary of $562,540 per annum.

The hearing in Hobart, before Victorian magistrate Susan Wakeling, continues.

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Originally published as ‘I hopped into bed and started crying’: Judge Gregory Geason continues his defence in DV case