The Daily News
February 8, 1997
Sex, lies and men's reputations (1)
by Rosemary McLeod
Rape is an inflammatory issue. But when Whakatane
farmer Allan Rust was accused of rape by a 13-year-old schoolgirl, the community
stood behind him till his name was cleared, writes Rosemary McLeod in the first
of a two-part series
Rules governing rape trials were changed in 1985. Until then, women making
complaints could have their character and past history challenged by defence
lawyers. There was concern that this process effectively raped a woman a second
time, and that it deflected responsibility for what had happened away from the
accused man.
The incidence of rape convictions has not altered greatly since the change,
though the number of prosecutions more than doubled between 1986 and 1995, from
307 to 800.
One conviction that would never have been recorded under the old system was
that of Whakatane farm worker Allan Rust.
A year passed between the laying of a complaint with police by a 13-year-old
girl, and Mr Rust's arrest. Thus, there were no witnesses, no forensic
evidence, no scene examination to back the claim of
rape.
What had happened during that year left no doubt in the mind of Mr Rust's wife,
Raewyn, that it was a false accusation.
Fortunately for both her and her husband, their community stood behind them
through the three trials that followed.
What the Rusts knew was a story and character information that the first two
juries were not allowed to be told.
The young girl was known in her community to be too much of a handful for her
parents to control. She was a discipline problem for teachers at her school. If
she was sexually active, nobody was going to come forward and admit being
involved with her: her age made that an offence.
She had a crush on a much older man known to Mr Rust and had taken to telling
fanciful stories about her relationship with him: how she was going to move in
and live with him, how they were having sex.
Mr Rust confronted the girl, whom he knew well, about the stories, and told her
they should stop. Angered by that, she told him she would get even.
First, she laid a complaint against the man she had a crush on, claiming that
he had had sex with her. A jury threw that charge out. Next, she claimed that
Mr Rust had raped her.
This wasn't the only malicious case the girl was involved in. She had been a
key witness in charges brought by two other young girls against their father,
claiming that he had sexually abused them. He, too, was found not guilty. Mr
Rust was next.
"In the trial you can't bring up that all this had gone on
beforehand," says Mrs Rust. "If they (the jury) knew that at the
start we wouldn't have had a hung jury."
Mr Rust was charged with rape in l994. His first trial, which resulted in a
hung jury, was in l995. The Rusts have been told that there was a rogue juror
who could not believe the girl would lie. "One juror glared at us both
throughout the trial," says Mrs Rust.
The second trial was a couple of months later. All this time, Mr Rust was out
on bail, living and working near the girl. After making submissions to the
Court of Appeal, waiting 10 months to have them heard, the Rusts faced their
final trial a few months after the second. Last December, after hearing that
the girl had claimed a full sexual relationship with another man, and that this
could be part of the reason why she would lie, Mr Rust was finally acquitted by
a third jury. In the meantime, he'd served 10 months of a five-year sentence in
Waikeria Prison.
Mr Rust is now 36, his wife is 32. They've been married for 11 years, and have
children aged five and seven. They are local people who have lived in the
district most of their lives. They now have to sell their house to pay for the
legal process they've been through, and start life again with massive debts.
"There's not much chance of getting compensation for the time he did in
jail," says Mrs Rust.
She also doesn't expect to get back much of the $150,000 she and her husband owe
in legal fees so far.
"We had all the district behind us," says
Mrs Rust. "There were 250 letters from the community, from people ready to
give a character witness, and these went to the Court of Appeal as well. He'd
(her husband) been in the district 18 years, and they all knew him.
"We had to send out 200 newsletters because so many people were concerned.
We formed a committee, and they wrote newsletters and sent them out to people.
In his 10 months inside he only missed out seeing people for two visits, and
that's with people having to visit a prison 2<<1/2>> hours' drive
away.
"And we got about $20,000 from an appeal in the community to go toward our
costs. Thirty people travelled in a minibus to
As for the accusation: "I never believed it," says Mrs Rust flatly.
"It was just rubbish. The allegations were like something you'd see on a
pornographic video, oral sex and things like that. There wasn't anything plain,
it was all stupid stuff. How can a 13-year-old kid cook up such rubbish? When
she first laid the complaint there was none of this
oral sex, etcetera; that came up later on."
Though Mrs Rust sounds confident enough, it's plain that she's upset that one
of her children had to have counselling about what happened.
"Then the finger was pointed at Allan again. Did he do something to our
child? The local hospital people said, `Do you think your husband has done
something to her?' I had to go to Tauranga and get a
private counsellor. You wouldn't believe it, it's so ridiculous.
"It's only your word against them. That's what it comes down to."
As for the girl who laid the false complaint against Mr Rust: "Nothing
happens to her," says Mrs Rust. "She doesn't have to pay anyone back.
I feel she should be made to pay something back. She gets away with it
scot-free.
"We're fighting to get some of our costs back. But that costs money, too.
We're lucky that we got legal aid for some of it. But we had to borrow money.
If our family -- parents and so on -- weren't capable of helping us out and
lending the money he'd be still in there (jail). He wouldn't be able to pay for
an appeal and fight it.
"Our district is a lot wiser now. And we know you have to have one of the
best lawyers. The more that people know about it the better.
Things have got to be changed."
In this case, he says, three teenage girls got together to concoct stories
about their stepfathers. One girl's stepfather approached him, and Mr Scotter discovered that her two schoolfriends
had made identical allegations. The charges were all dropped, he says, but not
before the other two girls had claimed ACC.
Mr Scotter is not the only lawyer concerned at having
to deal with sexual cases going back years, where there is no evidence other
than one person's word against another's.
In cases like these, he says, "The jury would say, why lie? Why would a
woman put herself through all this if it wasn't true? One's suspicions are often
aroused by people like Rape Crisis.
"Though I've never met a Rape Crisis person, you have the suspicion that
they apply for the job on the basis that all men are rapists, and all women
tell the truth. If it's not a true story, and the woman is getting all this
support and belief, it's a dangerous thing. It sets things off on a pretty
dangerous path."
Viv d'Or, Nick Wills's mother, agrees. "I've been raped, and that's
how we knew she'd never been raped," says Ms d'Or.
"She had a new boyfriend within three weeks of this complaint, and that
doesn't square with how raped women behave.
"I was raped when I was not quite 10, and again in my early twenties. It
is very weird that you have this experience, and then you have your son falsely
accused of it. Dealing with it does make you a better person somehow,
better able to cope with life, anyway. That's why I didn't tolerate any of this
crap from the cops.
"Yes, okay, she's a great little actress, but you can't place the legal
process in the hands of incompetent people.
"Under the new law you can't cross-examine the woman, and information
about her past can't be brought up. Whereas in the past, lawyers were
unscrupulous and awful, nowadays you can't even bring up the truth about a
woman.
"When this happened I said to Nick, `Welcome to the world, son. This is
the real world, and dreadful things happen to great people'.
"He thought he was 10-feet tall and a bulletproof
20-year-old," says Ms d'Or,
"and he found that he was a powerless human being up against a system he
believed in."
DOMINION
* TUESDAY: Sex, lies and men's reputations
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CAPTION:
PARTY TIME: Allan and Raewyn Rust celebrate Allan's
release from prison in December after a third jury acquitted him of rape.