Raveen Saily is accused of raping a 16-year-old at knifepoint in public changing rooms in Arataki, Mount Maunganui.
Warning: This story contains material that some readers may find upsetting.
“Get inside, I’ve got a knife.”
That’s what Raveen Saily allegedly told a 16-year-old girl as he forced her into public changing rooms in Mount Maunganui before pulling out a flip-knife and drawing it across her breast.
He then allegedly raped and repeatedly violated her.
The 23-year-old is on trial in the Tauranga District Court this week, facing charges of indecent assault, rape and sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection.
He was 20 when he and the complainant began messaging over social media.
They’d been introduced by a friend of the complainant, who’d met Saily online.
In the leadup to the alleged incident, Saily and the girl had been messaging over Snapchat where he allegedly used the alias “John”. The girl didn’t know his proper name, and he didn’t use it on any of his social media profiles.
On October 25, 2021, the girl caught the bus to Mount Maunganui’s Bayfair mall. The pair met and went inside before deciding to go for a walk around the nearby Arataki Skatepark.
The court heard Saily had a flip knife with him, which he threw at the ground intermittently as they walked.
The Crown alleges when they reached the Arataki Community Centre changing room and toilet block, Saily forcefully grabbed the girl’s arm, pulled her toward the entrance of the changing rooms, and said “get inside, I’ve got a knife”.
Crown prosecutor Hannah Speight said Saily told the girl he would harm her with the knife if she didn’t do as she was told.
Fearful, the girl went inside where it’s alleged she was forced to perform oral sex on him, after he’d removed her dress, touched her breasts, and pulled down her underwear.
Speight said this violation had caused the girl discomfort, which at one point made her vomit.
He then allegedly raped her, before he bent her over a bench and violated her further.
Speight said the pair had heard people outside the toilet block, so Saily turned on the shower and told the girl to wait inside until he messaged her to come out.
Around five minutes later, the girl left the changing room and Saily walked her back to the bus stop.
The girl then messaged her sister about the incident, and a report was made to police later that day.
Saily’s lawyer Bill Nabney said there was no doubt the sexual acts had taken place, but it had been consensual.
The jury would not need to be too concerned with the scientific evidence about the presence of semen, because it was accepted the alleged acts had happened, but the defence case was the complainant consented, or at least Saily honestly believed she had consented.
The trial before Judge Bill Lawson is expected to take three days.
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.
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