Mother of accused recounts moment son learnt of allegations

The 21-year-old man, whose name and occupation are suppressed, has pleaded not guilty. Photo / File.

The mother of a man accused of sexually violating a woman he met on Facebook has recounted the moment he learnt of the allegations.

"(He) was crying. He wouldn't let me go near him and he just said 'mum I can lose everything and I just don't understand why this has happened'," she tearfully told the courtroom during his trial at Auckland District Court today.

The 21-year-old man, whose name and occupation are suppressed, has pleaded not guilty to the four charges of sexual violation, attempted sexual violation and two of indecent assault, which relate to an alleged incident on the night of September 25, 2010.

He wiped away tears as his mother described the "complete and utter devastation" the charges had caused.

Her son and the woman met on Facebook at the end of 2009 despite not knowing each other previously and a friendship was formed.

The accused's mother said she was home when the woman, aged 18 at the time, arrived to see her son on the night of the alleged offending.

Soon after she went to bed, leaving her door open, and the pair then went into her son's bedroom next to hers to watch a film, she said.

Over the next one or two hours she heard them talking and laughing through the wall, she said.

The man's mother then went to get a drink of water and seeing her son's TV still on, she walked into his room. He was sitting on the bed fully clothed and told her the woman had left, said his mother.

"She'd made a move on him. He'd asked her to leave," she told the court.

The young woman told the court yesterday that although they had earlier had consensual sex, her feelings for him changed and on September 25 she made it clear she did not want anything sexual to happen between them.

Once they got into bed, however, he became sexual towards her and his advances escalated in spite of her resistance, she said.

The man maintained no sexual contact took place, said his lawyer Todd Simmonds, who suggested the woman made up the allegations of violation and indecent assault because he had rejected her advances.

'You felt jilted, you felt rejected, you felt angry and you've pointed the finger at this young man," Mr Simmonds told her.

The trial continues.