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Allegations
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Wellington: A woman who
claims she was pack-raped by five men at Mount Maunganui 16 years ago was so
scared of her attackers she fled to Australia, she told the High Court at
Wellington yesterday. “I had always feared
for my safety from right after they raped me,” the woman said as she took the
stand for a second day. “I made sure there were
no telephones in my name, that I wasn’t on the electoral roll, that there was
no way I could be traced. “It gave me a great
sense of security.” The woman broke down
yesterday as she told the court how as a 20-year-old in January 1989 she was
lured to an empty building on the false pretence of a lunch date with a man
she liked. Four of the men, now
aged between 40 and 53, are on trial. They admit having sex with the woman
but say it was consensual. The fifth man has never
been identified or charged. Extensive suppression
orders prevent the identification of the men or their past and present
occupations. The woman, now 37 and
married with three children, told the court the men restrained her and took
turns raping her over a period of about an hour and a-half. One forced her to
perform oral sex on him and another brutally penetrated her with a large
object up to 20 times. “He was deliberately
trying to hurt me,” she said. Details of the object are also suppressed. Afterwards, the woman
was in an “awful amount of pain”. The woman found it
difficult to walk and asked one of the men to drive her back to work. She
gathered her car keys and returned to the motel where she was staying. “I washed myself
thoroughly many times. I examined myself and found my vagina was extremely
red and swollen.” However, the woman
didn’t seek medical assistance or report the incident to police. “I was too
scared. I knew if I went to hospital I would be asked how I got the
injuries.” A few days after the alleged gang rape, one of the men visited her
at the motel. Shortly after he arrived, the phone rang for him. “I felt that
he had asked someone to ring him to look like I was dating him and consented
to having him in my motel room.” The man returned to the motel again two
nights later. “It just increased my fear of him,” she said. “He hadn’t
indicated he would hurt me but his intimidatory tactics were huge.” The woman
said she became very scared. “I couldn’t eat or
sleep or work to the degree I was required to. “I had gotten to the
point where I just had to get out of there.” By the middle of the year,
the woman had left her job and moved to Australia. Statements made by the
accused that she had agreed to go to the building for group sex were an
“inconceivable lie”, the woman said. “It’s just rubbish. It
sounds like something out of a Penthouse.” Under cross-examination
by defence lawyer Paul Mabey, QC, the woman said her injuries would have been
obvious to any doctor. “But they did not
require hospitalisation. There was no bleeding.” Asked why she did not
scream or fought against her restrains, she replied, “There was no point.” The four men each face
charges of rape and abduction. Two are also charged with unlawful sexual
violation and one is also charged with a second count of rape and unlawful
sexual violation. They have pleaded not
guilty to all charges. The woman told the
court the last of the five men she says raped her had been a reluctant member
of a “tag team”. She said the youngest
man had been “tag teamed” last, and told it was his turn. “‘I don’t want to,’
he said.” She said he looked very nervous and half-way expectant. The other
men were leaving. “I said, they have ruined my life anyway, you may as well.
“That in no form was permission for him to rape me. I did not give him
permission to have sex with me.” The court was adjourned briefly after the
woman described how one of the men forced an object inside her. “Brent, I
think I’m going to pass out,” she told prosecutor Brent Stanaway. The trial
continues today. |
