Two men have been found guilty of raping a drunken woman who said she could not remember having sex.
Frank Maurice Manifold, aged 47, who ran Blazers Cafe and Bar in Kumeu, and barman Richard John Condren, 48, were remanded in custody for sentencing on November 12.
The jury in the High
Court at Auckland found the pair not guilty of sodomising the 25-year-old in an upstairs bedroom at the bar on July 12 last year.
They were initially accused of spiking the woman's drink with the drug cyclizine as part of sexual thrill-seeking.
But in an embarrassing about-face during the trial, the Crown acknowledged that the drug had been administered later when she went to hospital, and the stupefying charges were dismissed.
The jury retired on Thursday, and yesterday asked to re-hear the evidence of the doctor who examined the woman after the attack.
Dr Faye Clark said some of the injuries were not consistent with a fall, and it was more likely they were caused some other way. The woman had bleeding grazes in her genital area, and some of her injuries looked to be caused by rough handling.
The woman had told the court that she had three beers before blacking out. She could not remember much of the night, did not know who had sex with her and did not consent.
Justice Nicholson told the jury that if the woman was drunk to the extent of insensibility, she would not be in a position to consent. However, she could give consent if she was sufficiently aware to make decisions and act on them.
Scientific evidence was given that the woman would have been between 21/2 and four times over the legal limit for driving.
The Crown said the claim by both accused that she was a willing participant in a threesome was nothing more than a perverted fantasy.
Defence lawyers Barry Hart and Kevin McDonald said during the trial that after falling naked down a steep flight of stairs, the woman decided to make up the rape allegation to explain away her injuries to her husband of five months.
After the verdict, both lawyers said they expected their clients to appeal.
