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Allegations of Sexual
Abuse in NZ |
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A man accused of raping a woman he
met on the internet told police he "may have misread some signals",
a jury at the Palmerston North District Court heard yesterday. A 31-year-old Wellington man is on
trial for the alleged rape and sexual violation of a 27-year-old Palmerston
North woman. The man's name and occupation are suppressed. The pair met on NZDating.com at
the beginning of June last year and met at the woman's Palmerston North home
on the night of June 9. They talked in the lounge for
about 40 minutes and the man met the woman's sister and flatmate before they
went to her bedroom. They spent an hour-and-a-half
alone in the room, during which time the woman claims the man raped her. She
told the court she was not restrained, did not call out for help and
"gave in" to the man's demands. Soon after leaving later that
night, the man sent her a text message that read: "I feel bad, sorry for
raping you." In a video interview with
Palmerston North Detective Jonathan Oram, the accused said the text message
was "a bad choice of words". He told Det Oram they kissed and
had consensual sex, which ended when she said she felt uncomfortable because
she had feelings for another man. "Christ, I did not rape her.
What I could possibly say here was I may have misread some signals from her.
But if she really felt I was raping her, she had her friend and her sister in
the house, she could have screamed out for help." The accused said in the interview
the text message referring to rape was related to earlier conversations they
had on the internet. "It was a bad text message to
send. It wasn't like I was gloating I'd raped her. "When I was driving home I
was aware that she was uncomfortable and I just didn't want her to feel
uncomfortable." He told Det Oram he
"sometimes uses the wrong word". "When you use that term, it
appears you've had time to think about what you've done and you've thought,
I've gone too far." The man insisted he did not rape
the woman. "I did not have any intention
of raping her. Rape is a strong word." "It's the word you used in
the text message you sent her apologising for raping her," Det Oram
said. Earlier in the day, the doctor who
examined the woman the night she was allegedly raped told the court the
complainant suffered a small internal tear "more consistent with
non-consensual than consensual sex". Katrina Harper said the injury was
recent. Dr Harper told the court 10 to 30
percent of rape victims suffer visible genital injuries. The jury has heard the
correspondence between the accused and the woman leading up to the June 9
meeting was sexually explicit. The accused emailed the woman
after reading her profile on the internet dating site. The woman's profile
said she was "looking for a bed buddy". The man emailed the woman nude
pictures of himself, but the woman told the court she made it clear she just
wanted a "coffee and a chat" when he visited. The Crown closed its case
yesterday afternoon and the jury was expected to be sent out to consider its
verdict today or tomorrow morning. |
