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Allegations
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One of the men accused of
pack-raping a woman 16 years ago says he had plenty of female company and
never needed to resort to rape. The man gave his
account in the High Court at Wellington yesterday of what he said was
consensual group sex at Mt Maunganui in 1989. He said a friend told
him it had been arranged that a woman, whom both of them knew, would have sex
with two or three men, including his friend, and he went along to see if she
would have sex with him too. He said she kissed and
cuddled him and his friend. If she had said he was not welcome, he would have
left, he said. The man said he had
never raped any woman and had no need to. "I have never had
to resort to that, I would never do that, I never could do that," he
said. At the time of the
incident he was single and, "without wanting to sound arrogant",
had no problem meeting women and having sex with them, he said. Justice Ron Young has
suppressed key details in the case, including the names of the men. The man, now 53, was
the first of the four accused to give evidence. His friend, 47, is due to
give evidence today. They, and two others now aged 40 and 46, are charged
with detaining the woman without her consent with intent to have sex with
her, and raping her. The man who has given evidence
and his friend each face two extra charges of sexual violation by unlawful
sexual connection. His friend faces an extra rape charge. The woman said she had
asked for a lunch date to be arranged with one of the men, but instead five
men raped her. The man who has given
evidence denied the woman's allegations that her hands were bound and she was
violated with an object while he watched. He denied saying "Don't hurt
her, man," as she had claimed. He said he only saw his
friend have sex with her, and the woman performed oral sex on his friend
while he was having intercourse with her. Another man was present
when he arrived and one was arriving as he was leaving. Under
cross-examination, he agreed that once he found out the incident was being
investigated, he and his friend talked and agreed to meet in person. He
agreed their calls might have been intercepted but they also wanted to
discuss their innocence and the woman's lies, to support each other and
discuss how to fund their defence. "We were not going
to conspire to get up here and tell lies, I can assure you of that. "I know we will go
to our graves saying we are innocent because I know we are." The man's lawyer, Paul
Mabey, QC, had told the jury to put aside questions of morality when they were
considering the case. They were not there to judge a man based on the fact he
had taken part in group sex. |
