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The Daily News
September 12, 2003
Not guilty verdict in affair-rape case
by Kim Batchelor
A retired Taranaki man was found not guilty in the High Court in New Plymouth
yesterday of the rape of his friend's lover 13 years ago.
The man was acquitted of raping, sexual violating and indecently assaulting
the woman, then in her early 30s, at a sports club one night between
September and December 1990.
At the end of the two-day jury trial Justice Rhys Harrison permanently suppressed
the man's name, previous occupation, current job and any details that might
identify him.
At the time of the rape, the complainant and her lover were both married to
other people and had been having a secret affair.
The Crown alleged the accused, who was her lover's boss and friend, had
threatened to damage her lover's career if she did not have sex with him.
By late 1991 they had moved in together and married a few years later.
It was not until the accused retired that the woman told her husband what had
happened and complained to police.
Earlier in the day, a transcript was read to the jury by Detective Inspector
Doug Brew, of Palmerston North, who interviewed the man about the
allegations.
"I'm not a Bill Clinton," the accused said.
"I have never forced myself on a woman and the one thing I am not is a
liar.
"You do one thing in your life and regret it. I didn't have sexual
intercourse with her. I touched her, she touched me or vice-versa."
In a video interview with Mr Brew, the accused denied the woman's claims that
he raped her and made threats that things might go wrong for her partner.
"I have definitely never said anything like that and neither would I.
"I take the oath very seriously . . . I would swear on any Bible."
In summing up, defence lawyer Susan Hughes said her client agreed to
participate in a mutual fondling session with the woman but denied raping
her.
Ms Hughes said the accused agreed to a police interview without a lawyer
present because he had nothing to hide.
If the accused was a predator, as the woman suggested, then he would not have
been satisfied with the one encounter, she said.
It did not make sense for a rape victim to return to the same sports club
where she had allegedly been raped. It was not normal behaviour for a woman
to send risque emails to her alleged rapist and to keep in regular contact,
she said.
It was a timely coincidence that she spoke out about the alleged incident in
the same month the accused got a new job that the complainant had also
applied for, she said.
Crown prosecutor Michele Wilkinson-Smith denied the woman made a false
allegation against the defendant after missing out on the job.
The woman had no realistic motive to make up the story, she said.
If it was consensual touching then why did they not go somewhere more private
instead of groping in a club doorway and why did the man keep asking the
woman "You haven't told anyone have you?" over a 12-year period.
The woman did not report the rape earlier because she had just come out of a
broken marriage and did not want to ruin her new relationship, she said.
Although the woman socialised with the accused, it was only because he and
her husband were friends. If the accused and the woman had a friendship, then
why was it that, in 12 years, the woman had never invited him into her house
when she was home alone.
The accused also claimed never to have gone inside the house when she was by
herself, she said.
About 18 months before the woman reported the rape and applied for the same
job as the accused, she avoided the accused by leaving the room and refused
to socialise with him and his wife.
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