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Allegations of Abuse
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Auckland: A woman allegedly raped
in a Northland police station while handcuffed two decades ago said yesterday
she left evidence behind because she feared for her life. She placed some hair she pulled
out from her head on a desk in the room where the alleged offences took
place. She also marked the desk with her
fingerprints. “I saw this as a very dangerous
place to be and I wanted to leave some evidence there,” she said. “I thought he had to kill me. I
perceived myself being in a very scary situation.” The woman was giving evidence on
the opening day of the trial of a former police constable, who faces eight
charges, including four of sexual violation by rape. The accused, who has name
suppression, does not dispute that sex took place, but says it was
consensual. The woman told the Auckland
District Court she went to a hotel for dinner to discuss a business matter on
a Saturday night in March 1988. Her partner worked at the hotel
and she stayed on after dinner, when she was introduced to the accused. She said the man was dressed in
plain clothes and smelled of alcohol. Early the next morning, she was
asked if she could take the accused home in her car, because she was heading
in his direction. The woman, who said she had not had much to drink, agreed,
but did so reluctantly, adding that the man was now “very drunk”. As they reached the town where he
lived, he asked her to stop by the police station, saying he needed to pick
up some running gear he would need the following day. At the station, he said there was a
problem with her car lights. When she got out to check, “I felt a bang on my
right wrist and it was handcuffs”. “I felt claustrophobic. I felt I
couldn’t move. I felt scared,” she said. “I begged him to let me go home.” The woman said the man suggested
sex, and when she declined, he told her he would take the handcuffs off, but
the key was in the station. She went inside with him and it
was then that the alleged offences took place. She said she made it clear she
wanted him to stop and that her partner was waiting for her at her house. She told him afterwards: “You
raped me”. “He said, ‘No, you enjoyed it’. I
said again, ‘No you raped me’.” She said he told her not to tell
anyone what happened or “I will do you”. Before the woman took the witness box,
defence counsel Gary Gotlieb told the jury the sex was not only consensual,
but was “instigated and promoted” by the woman. Mr Gotlieb said the accused was 28
at the time, 16 years younger than the complainant, who was a mature woman. He questioned why a formal
complaint to police was not made until three months later and said a decision
not to lay charges at the time had the support of the then police minister. |
