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Allegations of Abuse
in NZ |
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Tea Ropati - League Star accused
of rape |
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=115&objectid=10489519 NZ Herald Jury told not to blame woman in Ropati case
Tea Ropati. An Auckland District Court jury has been told not to blame
the woman at the centre of former league star Tea Ropati's sex trial but to
focus on someone who had been taken advantage of while she was defenceless. Ropati faces six charges of attempted sexual violation,
sexual violation, rape, and sodomy, that allegedly occurred on June 15, 2006. He denies all the charges. In his summary of the case, prosecutor Phil Hamlin said it
would be tempting to blame the woman for getting into trouble because she was
drunk and had snorted cocaine, but the jury must not judge her. "I'm sure it's passed through your minds, if not your
discussions," Mr Hamlin said. "But we are not here to judge her." Mr Hamlin said the woman - who cannot be named for legal
reasons - had been flirting and laughing with Ropati in the Whiskey Bar on
Ponsonby Rd but later became sleepy and unresponsive when the pair moved to a
back room where some of the alleged sexual offending took place. Mr Hamlin said the law was clear that consent could not be
given if someone was asleep or unconscious and that video footage of the pair
in the bar showed the woman was clearly affected by alcohol, "curled up
in a position of sleep or the very least resting". He said she was so
impaired she wasn't able to consent to sex and all the evidence presented in
court pointed to consent not being given. "This is the essence of the complainant's case ...
that she was taken advantage of and couldn't defend herself," he said. After being in the bar her next memory was of being in
Ropati's car, in pain, with his "angry face" looming over her. "That piece of evidence suggests without a doubt she
was asleep when the pain was inflicted upon her," he said. "The medical injuries [to her genitals] show blunt
force trauma not consistent with consensual sex." Earlier in the day, rugby league identity Peter Leitch
(The Mad Butcher), told the court Ropati was a gentleman around women. The trial continues today. |
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