NT Police Officer on Trial for Perverting Course of Justice

A Northern Territory police officer is standing trial accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice by allegedly trying to pressure his former partner into dropping aggravated assault charges against him.

Karol Jarentowski pleaded not guilty in the NT Supreme Court on Monday before his jury trial began, with his lawyer arguing his client had no intention of interfering with criminal proceedings and that "no offence was committed".

In his opening statement, Crown Prosecutor Ben Macdonald told the jury that Mr Jarentowski was charged with aggravated assault and issued a domestic violence order in August 2024, after he threw two T-shirts at his former partner — also a police officer — during an argument at one of their children's tennis games.

The ABC is choosing not to name the victim to protect her identity.

The court heard the pair were going through an emotional separation following an eight-year relationship and were in the midst of negotiating the terms of a parenting plan for their two children, one of whom had a medical condition that required regular appointments with an interstate specialist.

Across two months following the assault, the prosecution alleges Mr Jarentowski began to pressure his former partner to withdraw her complaint, by repeatedly messaging her and telling her court proceedings would affect his "livelihood".

Mr Macdonald told the jury that on one occasion while Mr Jarentowski's ex-partner was taking their children on a flight interstate, he sent "several messages … about wanting her to discontinue the assault proceedings and the potential impact on his livelihood".

The prosector said on a FaceTime call shortly after the flight — organised so Mr Jarentowski could speak to the children — he again tried to pressure her "to influence the outcome of the proceedings" and then sent her another message.

The jury heard the woman repeatedly told Mr Jarentowski she did not want to discuss the matter.

"In broad terms, the Crown alleges the accused exerted improper pressure [on his ex-partner] through his repeated requests for her to withdraw the complaint of assault, and that this conduct had a real risk to interfere with the conduct of the criminal proceedings, and the accused intended for this conduct to influence those criminal proceedings," Mr Macdonald said.

The jury also heard Mr Jarentowski later pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

In his opening statement, Mr Jarentowski's lawyer Ben Fernadez said that put simply, his client had not committed an offence.

"It's not in dispute that on the 13th of August 2024, Mr Jarantowski was charged with the aggravated assault of his estranged partner … and that that aggravated assault charge arose from throwing two T-shirts at her head from about a metre away," he told the jury.

He added there was also no dispute over whether his client had sent messages to his ex-partner or spoken to her after the incident.

What the defence did dispute, he told the court, was whether anything Mr Jarentowski had said was "capable of amounting to pressuring [his ex-partner] to withdraw her statement of complaint".

"And even if it was capable of persuading her to withdraw that complaint, whether or not it was anything more than reasonably stating objective facts," Mr Fernandez said.

"I'll phrase it this way — it's certainly in dispute whether Mr Jarentowski even had the intention of pressuring [his ex-partner] to withdraw her statement of complaint.

The trial continues on Tuesday.