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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse |
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One of four men accused
of pack-raping a woman at Mount Maunganui 16 years ago excitedly prepared for
a sexual encounter the morning of the alleged attack, the High Court at Wellington
was told today. The man had taken an
old mattress to an empty building, a friend whose name is suppressed said. The man saw his friend
later in the day and told him he had group sex and an object had been used as
a sexual implement, the friend told the court. Four men are on trial
after a woman lodged a complaint with police in April 2004 that she was gang
raped by five men in January 1989. The fifth man has never been identified. The identity of the
four men and their occupations are suppressed. The woman, then 20,
alleges that she was lured to an empty building on a promise of a lunch date
with a man she liked. She claims she was
restrained, raped, and brutally violated with an object. Details of that
object are suppressed. The men admit having
group sex with the woman but say it was consensual. Defence lawyer Tony
Balme said two other witnesses would give evidence that they were also told
by the man about group sex in the empty building and that an object had been
used as a sex aid. The man's friend - who
is also a friend of one of the other accused men - said despite difficulty
recollecting events 16 years, he remembered a mattress being taken to the
building the day of the alleged attack. "I've given this
case a lot of thought. I've gone over it again and again," he said. "I've got two
friends involved so it's serious for me. I'm saying what I remembered." A former colleague of
the alleged victim yesterday told the court the woman - now 37 and living in
Australia with her husband and three children - had developed an attraction
for one of the accused men after meeting him at her work. Another of the accused
men agreed to set up the lunch date after she won a bet with him. The former colleague
said the woman had been outgoing and bubbly before the lunch date, but
afterwards was withdrawn and unhappy. The trial, before
Justice Ronald Young and a jury of four men and eight women, will enter its
second week on Monday. |
