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Allegations
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NZ Herald The mother of an intellectually handicapped woman allegedly raped by her 50-year-old sailing instructor says her daughter appeared "brainwashed" after she moved in with the man. Mark Pearson is charged with eight separate counts of sexual offending, including three of rape. He is being tried in the Auckland District Court this week. The court heard on Monday that the woman had a mental age of about 10, and could therefore not have given her informed consent to a sexual relationship. The defence said no sexual activity took place between the two. The mother of the alleged victim told the court yesterday her daughter's moving out of home and in with Pearson had come with no warning. Her daughter had gone to work on her first day at a new job, and when her father arrived at 4pm to pick her up she was gone. The couple subsequently learned their daughter had gone to stay with Pearson, but were not told why, the mother said. Attempts to talk to their daughter by telephone usually failed as Pearson was normally the one who answered the phone, and the couple became concerned about her wellbeing, the mother said. In the three months her daughter spent living at Pearson's house, her mother saw her only once. Her daughter also ended contact with her community friends, and the mother said she eventually became "quite desperate" to get her daughter away from Pearson. "She didn't seem herself. She seemed brainwashed." But Pearson's lawyer, Howard Lawry, accused the mother and her husband of using cannabis and methamphetamine at home, habits he said their daughter was uncomfortable with. The mother denied she and her husband had ever used methamphetamine. She agreed she had used cannabis in the past, but for medicinal purposes only. Earlier yesterday the court heard evidence from the alleged victim. The woman, now 23, struggled to understand the meaning of many questions, and contradicted herself frequently. Several times she claimed she had been involved in a sexual relationship with Pearson, and several times she said she had not. |
