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Allegations of Abuse
in NZ |
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Tea Ropati - League Star accused
of rape |
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Otago Daily Times AUCKLAND: A woman who alleges she
was raped by former Kiwi rugby league player Tea Ropati said today that an
‘‘honourable man’’ would have sent her home in a taxi because she was so
drunk. In Auckland District Court, Mr
Ropati (42) has denied six sex charges, including one of rape, arising from
events at a bar and at a park in the early hours of June 15, 2006. The Crown case is the woman had
had too much alcohol to have been able to consent to any sexual connection,
but the defence has argued she was a willing partner. In cross-examination on the second
day of the trial, defence counsel Gary Gotlieb asked the woman how Mr Ropati
would have known that what was happening was not consensual. ‘‘I was in no position to consent,
I had had too much alcohol,’’ she said. ‘‘Any honourable man would have
put me in a taxi and sent me home.’’ Asked if Mr Ropati had failed the
test of an honourable man, the woman replied: ‘‘Beyond that, he’s a rapist.’’
The woman said she could not
recall any of the alleged sexual activity at The Whiskey bar in inner city
Ponsonby because of her level of intoxication. She remembered waking suddenly in
Ropati’s car in nearby Victoria Park and being in pain, while Mr Ropati’s
‘‘angry, twisted face’’ was above her. Mr Gotlieb suggested she must still
have been aware of what was happening at the bar as she had bought five
rounds of drinks using her eftpos card, for which she needed to enter her
pin. ‘‘I was functioning, but drunk,’’ she said. The woman’s sister-in-law
told the court the complainant arrived home about 3am distressed. ‘‘She was
just sobbing, sobbing, sobbing and saying, ‘Something bad has happened to
me’,’’ the sister-inlaw said. While the complainant’s brother went to call
the police, the sister-inlaw held her. ‘‘She couldn’t even stand up,’’ she
said. ‘‘I helped her to her bed and she rolled into a ball. She had full-on
panics. She did not calm down at all. In some parts she was not making
sense.’’ The trial continues. |
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