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Allegations of Abuse
in NZ |
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Tea Ropati - League Star accused
of rape |
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Sunday News
Cleared: Tea Ropati arrives at
court The high-flying executive who
accused sports star Tea Ropati of rape is herself now the focus of a class A
drugs investigation. Sunday News can reveal the woman's
admissions during police interviews and court testimony could lead detectives
to either charge her or give her an official warning over snorting cocaine on
the evening she met the former league hunk. During the trial, which ended on
Thursday, the Crown said Ropati met the intoxicated 37-year-old at celebrity
haunt The Whiskey Bar, at Auckland's Ponsonby, in April, 2006, and attempted
to sexually violate her before driving to nearby Victoria Park and raping her
in his car. Ropati's defence team argued rape
did not happen because Ropati had stopped short of full sex with the
complainant as he was feeling guilty about his wife Vanessa and sexual
contact that did happen between them was consensual. After 10 hours the Auckland
District Court jury delivered not guilty verdicts for all six sex charges,
before an emotionally-charged public gallery. But on Friday, the officer in
charge of Operation Whiskey one of the first cases to be investigated by the
police's newly-established sexual assault team revealed the complainant
herself could face legal action. "We will be reviewing the
file," Detective Senior Sergeant Scott Beard told Sunday News.
"That process is certainly not completed." Evidence during the week-long
trial showed how the woman had told a police doctor she had consumed no drugs
on the night she met Ropati. In her first interview with detectives she did
not mention her consumption of the class A substance, but admitted it in a
later interview. Sources told Sunday News the woman
made the admission after police showed her toxicology results taken during
the medical examination. Beard said the woman's drug-taking
confession "maybe warrants a warning" and "if we were to lay a
criminal charge, we would need to weigh up if it is in the public
interest". Warnings are only given once and
are stored on an offender's record but do not amount to a criminal history. Leading criminal lawyer John Haigh
QC said giving a warning to a person who had admitted taking cocaine would be
"highly unusual". "You would usually get these
for some less serious drug like marijuana." Possession of cocaine can attract
a maximum six months' imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $1000. There is no mention of the
self-titled career woman's drug use in the latest NZ Woman's Weekly which
contains an exclusive three-page tell-all interview, Ropati's Accuser Speaks
Out. In the interview, she denied being
a "rugby groupie" and said her only regret "is how drunk I got
that night. "I wish more than anything,
that I could have put myself in a taxi earlier that night," the woman
said. She said she felt as though she
was being treated as a drink driver "who has created an accident that is
all their own fault, and people don't feel sorry for them because their
injuries were due to their own drinking". It is understood the woman who has
engaged a celebrity agent was paid several thousand dollars for the story. Asked if he agreed with rape
complainants selling their stories, Beard said: "Some may say, `Good on
her, she deserves to get something out of this'." |
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