Couple's cruise-ship clash leads to assault charge (2024)

EXCLUSIVE

A couple's quarrel over on-board spending while on an international cruise erupted into a bloody fight inside their cabin, with accusations of an affair and a suicide threat.

Tony Lilo is before court, having admitted to punching his wife in the head onboard the Celebrity Eclipse.

Both were confined to separate cabins until the ship returned to Sydney from New Zealandwhen Lilo, from Guildford in Sydney's west, was taken into custody.

Lilo's wife, who lives in Seattle in the US northwest, was unable to be with her husband when he faced court in his Sydney this week but supports him despite their violent confrontation.

The couple boarded the Celebrity Eclipse in Sydney on March 15 last year for a two-week cruise across the Tasman Sea, and shared a state room with a balcony.

He was 39, she was 48, and they had been married for about two years when they embarked on the journey.

After eight nights at sea the vessel was 286 nautical miles (530km) off the coast of New Zealand when Lilo and his wife began arguing in their cabin.

According to a statement of facts tendered in Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday, the disagreement began about 'the spending of cash on the ship'.

'Specifically, the vessel had an activity for guests that involved the collection and purchase of charms and other jewellery,' the statement said.

'The [wife] participated in the activity and had collected a bag of charms. [Lilo] and [his wife] had differing views about how money should be spent on these items, and how the items should be distributed amongst themselves, their family and friends.'

A heated verbal dispute escalated into the couple pushing each other and Lilo's wife telling her husband if he did not get out of her way she would slap him.

When Lilo invited his wife to slap him, she did.

Lilo responded by punching his wife on the left side of her face, causing her 'to feel sharp pain and disorientation'.

From the edge of the bed, Lilo's wife kicked him in the chest and he fell backwards into a television cabinet.

The pair resumed pushing each other and when Lilo's wife said she wanted to leave he pushed her to floor and straddled her legs.

Lilo pushed down on his wife's neck, making it difficult for her to breathe and causing a mole to bleed, as well as inflicting a scratch to her right cheek.

She attempted to get him off her by scratching his face and hooking fingers inside his cheek, causing bleeding.

During the fight, Lilo called his wife a 'b***h', a 'c***' and a 'selfish c***'. She bit his finger.

When it was over, Lilo said he was going to throw himself and his belongings off the ship and told his wifeif she called security it would be 'the last thing she'd ever do'.

At that point the arguing stopped and the couple spent the night in their cabin, having 'minimal contact with one another'.

The next morning, Lilo's wife went for breakfast with friends she had met on the ship, according to the statement tendered in court.

When she returned to the cabin another squabble broke out, 'as he believed she was cheating on him with someone else on the cruise'.

Lilo then told his wife neither of them was leaving the cabin 'until she told him who she was going swimming with'.

A Celebrity Eclipse crew member heard Lilo's wife cry for help and security officers attended their state room.

A doctor subsequently observed injuries to both parties caused by the fight, and they were confined in separate rooms for the rest of the cruise.

When the ship docked at Circular Quay in Sydney on March 26, Australian Federal Police arrested Lilo.

Celebrity Eclipse is a 17-deck, 317m long ship with a capacity to carry 2,850 passengers and 1,200 crew, owned by the Royal Caribbean Group and registered in the Bahamas.

Asked about assaulting his wife, Lilo said he 'basically had thrown a punch towards her face' to defend himself and his closed fist hit the left side of her jaw.

Lilo further told police he had tried to 'subdue' his wife 'so she wouldn't be able to hurt' me by holding her down.

Having pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm, Lilo sought on Tuesday to have the matter dealt with under mental health provisions rather than the criminal law.

Lilo's wife provided a victim impact statement in which she referred to him as her 'beloved husband' and said she was 'not entirely sure what happened' in their cabin.

'I didn't see him hit me and felt no pain afterwards,' she wrote.

Having participated in boxing, wrestling and sword fighting for many years, she had suffered far worse injuries from those contact sports.

Lilo's wife said she and her husband both suffered significant mental health problems and he had never hit or threatened her in the past.

'Tony is the best husband I could wish for,' she wrote. 'He truly is a beacon of light in the darkness and my life is better in every way with him in it.'

As a consequence of an interim apprehended violence order taken out after the assault, Lilo had been unable to see his wife for almost 17 months.

Lilo's barrister, Greg James KC, said his client had undergone counselling before and after the events on the ship and would continue seeking help through Relationships Australia.

Mr James said the couple wanted to stay together and an assault conviction would likely prevent Lilo being able to travel to the US to be with his wife.

Magistrate Susan Horan rejected the application to deal with the case under mental health provisions rather than the criminal law, despite accepting Lilo's diagnosis of a persistent depressive disorder.

Ms Horan adjourned the case until later this month so that Lilo could produce evidence a conviction would stop him obtaining a US visa.