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Allegations
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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 |
