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Allegations of Abuse
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A woman who says she was raped by
a Northland policeman nearly 20 years ago denied calling him "a naughty
little policeman" during the alleged incident. The 63-year-old woman, who cannot
be named, was being cross-examined yesterday in the Auckland District Court
on the second day of a jury trial of the former policeman, now 44. He faces eight charges, including
four of sexual violation by rape. Defence lawyer Gary Gotlieb
suggested to the woman that she willingly entered the police station in the
middle of the night in March 1988 with the accused and had sex with him. "[The accused] says you took
your pantihose off in the car and walked into the police station ... then you
consensually had sex on the desk and then on the floor." The woman said this was wrong -
"I was raped over the desk, then I was raped lying on the floor. It was
not consensual sex. It was rape." Mr Gotlieb suggested that she had
asked the accused to put handcuffs on her while they were on the floor and
told him he was "a naughty little policeman". She told Mr Gotlieb she would
never use such a phrase. "I think this is someone else's fantasy, not
mine." Earlier yesterday, the woman said
that when she arrived home that night she took off all her clothes and
bathed. "I felt very dirty. I sat in
some very hot water and washed myself." When a friend arrived, she told
him she could not talk about what had happened. He asked her if the policeman
had raped her. "I said yes." The woman told the court her
friend noticed bruising on her wrists. "He said, 'The bastard', and got
very upset." She later complained to police and
was told after she had been interviewed that the accused policeman had
"admitted everything". "I felt very, very reassured.
I felt I could go to sleep," she told the court. The woman said that when she
finally gave a statement to police three months later and signed it, she was
told a full investigation would follow. "I was relieved something was
going to happen." She said she was shocked to hear
the man was still in uniform and still working when she had believed he had
resigned and was facing a criminal conviction. She also learned that he had not
confessed, as another policeman had told her. Mr Gotlieb showed the woman her
signed 14-page statement from June 1988 and asked her to confirm everything
was correct. She said the document was six
pages shorter than the original. Because she had been lied to by
police up until that point, she said, she was "extremely
distrustful" of them and noted in her diary at the time that the
statement was 20 pages long. Judge Michael Lance, QC, refused
an application from Television New Zealand to publish the accused's name. He said he would be prepared to
consider an application for permanent suppression. The order suppressing the
accused's name until the end of the trial was unusual, he said, but so was
the case. |
