|
Allegations of Abuse
in NZ |
||
|
Tea Ropati - League Star accused
of rape |
||
|
NZ Herald A former rugby league test player
allegedly raped a woman in a car and threw money at her before kicking her
out on to the street, Auckland District Court has been told. The testimony came from the
complainant's brother on the first day of depositions and before a tense
stand-off between relatives of the complainant and the defendant outside the
court. The former Kiwis player has name
suppression, as do five other people related to the case. The man faces three charges of
sexual violation by rape, sodomy and sexual violation in 2006. The incident is alleged to have
happened during an alcohol and drug-fuelled night, after the woman met the
defendant at The Whiskey Bar on Ponsonby Road. One of the people who had been out
with the woman that evening testified that the woman had been drinking
heavily. The woman's brother told the court
she had arrived home in the early hours of the morning, "quite
upset" and claiming repeatedly that "something terrible had
happened". "All she said was that he was
Maori ... he had an angry face. She could remember the angry face." His sister entered the house, went
to the toilet and after a few minutes could be heard crying, he told the
court. Alarmed, the man asked her if he
should call the police, and she replied: "I've been raped." The woman told her brother she should
not have let it happen but just because she was drunk it did not mean she had
deserved to be raped, he said. Police who responded to the emergency call
told the court the woman was hysterical. Auckland-based fashion designer
Adrian Hailwood told the court how he had met the complainant for the first
time at a Ponsonby bar that evening. "She was quite drunk," he
said. Mr Hailwood told the court how he
watched the woman and her two friends drink three bottles of wine. Mr Hailwood said he then went to The
Whiskey Bar with the woman and her friends. At the bar, Mr Hailwood said he
saw the defendant, who appeared sober. The boyfriend of one of the
complainant's friends said he met the complainant for the first time that
evening. The woman was sitting with his
girlfriend and the defendant, he said. The man left the bar for 40
minutes after his girlfriend's handbag was stolen and returned to find the
complainant and defendant "all over each other". The woman had her hand on the
defendant's lap and they were kissing each other, he said. The accused at one point had his
hand in the complainant's top, the court was told. "They looked like two
people kissing and groping each other." After a while, the defendant
walked away to talk to someone else, which the complainant was not happy
about, he said. His girlfriend told the court she
had found the defendant "sleazy" at times and admitted she knew the
woman [complainant] had taken cocaine earlier in the evening. The
depositions, before Judge Patrick Treston, are set to finish today. |
||
