Craig Stanaway and Maryan Baghvand, also known as Maya Majors, attend an event in 2015. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
Craig Stanaway and Maryan Baghvand, also known as Maya Majors, attend an event in 2015. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
A dispute at a North Shore sailing club resulted in former TVNZ reporter and high-profile public relations manager Craig Stanaway suffering cuts and a bitten arm, a court was told today as the media personality’s former partner was sentenced.
Maryam Baghvand, 44, appeared in North Shore District Court as JudgeAnna Fitzgibbon ordered 12 months of supervision and 180 hours of community service.
Baghvand, also known as Maya Majors, had initially been charged with wounding with two counts of intent to cause grievous bodily harm, which carries a maximum possible sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment, and one count of threatening to kill.
She instead pleaded guilty to a single reduced charge of injuring with intent, punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment. All parties, including the victim, agreed today that prison was not an outcome anyone wanted.
According to court documents, the defendant was at Murrays Bay Sailing Club in Auckland one Sunday morning last October when Stanaway showed up and the two got into an argument. Baghvand then walked to her car and Stanaway followed.
The reason for the argument cannot be revealed for legal reasons, but Judge Fitzgibbon noted today that Stanaway had a legitimate reason for following her. The bite occurred as both arrived at the vehicle.
“Ms Baghvand held her keys in her right hand and used the pointed end of a key to hit Mr Stanaway, repeatedly causing small cuts to his arm, back and head,” court documents state.
“I will kill you,” she said as the attack occurred, according to the agreed summary of facts for the case.
Stanaway did not require medical treatment, authorities noted.
Baghvand, who has no prior convictions, would later acknowledge what she had done to police.
“I did hurt him, I did all that,” she said. “But he was following me.”
During today’s hearing, defence lawyer Hannah Stuart said her client’s “fight-or-flight” reflex had been triggered, causing her to lash out, even though she now realises she was wrong to do so.
“The offending has occurred in the context of an extremely dysfunctional relationship,” Stuart said.
Maryam Baghvand and Craig Stanaway appear together at an event in 2013. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
Crown prosecutor Eliza Walker, however, emphasised repeatedly that the attack was unprovoked and there was no basis for characterising it as self-defence or the response to provocation. She described the defendant as seeming to have a sense of “entitlement” in regard to the offending.
Stanaway, in a victim impact statement that was read aloud in court by a constable, agreed that the attack was “unprovoked and unfair”.
“However, I am thankful in some ways that it happened because it pushed pause on crazy,” he wrote. “You were just out of control.”
Stanaway started his career in sports radio, working in New Zealand and Britain, before going to work for TVNZ - first as a sports reporter and later for Seven Sharp. He left the network in 2014 to work for Duco at the height of heavyweight champion Joseph Parker’s boxing career - appearing by the boxer’s side in the lead-up to his 2018 bout in Cardiff with fellow champ Anthony Joshua.
Craig Stanaway (right) stands alongside Joseph Parker (left) and David Higgins during a press conference regarding a bout with Hughie Fury. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
After boxing, he switched focus to basketball, serving as media manager for the NZ Breakers.
He sat silently in court next to the constable who read his victim impact statement. Baghvand stood by the dock, crying as the sentence was announced.
“You were crazed,” he wrote of the incident. “I tried to calm you down. I tried to reason with you. The police told me if you had a knife I’d be dead.”
The judge discouraged the reading of the full victim impact statement, which she described as occasionally straying off course from the reason for today’s hearing. Baghvand’s lawyer said her client doesn’t agree the victim impact statement gives a fair characterisation of what occurred.
“It appears that neither party has acted in a way that’s conducive to a healthy, ongoing relationship,” Stuart said.
The judge appeared to agree but noted that Stanaway had been in the right that day, which is why Baghvand was now in court.
“It is clear that the offending occurred at the end of a relationship that appears to have been acrimonious,” she said.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
