A van is driven down a hallway in the Pettigrew Green Arena in Napier during a ram-raid on an ATM machine, stolen on November 8, 2020. Earl and Ricky Campbell have been on trial in relation to the burglary and events which followed.
“Lies can change ... the truth stays constant.”
These were the words of a man accused of rape, kidnap and ram-raiding as he tried to convince a jury there were changes and inconsistencies in the Crown case against him.
Representing himself, Earl Strathern Campbell, 39, summed up his defence on Friday after a trial in the High Court at Napier which has lasted two weeks so far.
The Crown alleges that Campbell roped a 15-year-old girl into the ram-raid and then kidnapped, raped and sexually assaulted her in the following 48 hours in November 2020.
The period under scrutiny began when a van was driven through the locked door of the Pettigrew Green Arena, a sports and events centre in Taradale, Napier, in the early hours of November 8, 2020.
The Crown alleges Campbell was driving it and the girl was in the passenger seat as the van was driven down a hallway and bowled over an ATM.
It says that the ATM was later taken to the home of Campbell’s father, Ricky Campbell, 63, opened, and emptied of $19,800.
The Crown case alleges the girl was locked in a room at Ricky Campbell’s house, and then was taken to a motel by Earl Campbell the following day, where she was raped and sexually violated.
Earl Campbell faces 11 charges, including rape, sexual violation, kidnapping, strangulation, aggravated burglary, unlawful possession of a firearm, and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
Ricky Campbell has been charged with kidnapping, by allegedly locking the girl in the room, and being an accessory to the burglary after the fact by using grinders to open the ATM.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The young woman has statutory name suppression. The court has been told she is a relative of a long-standing drug-dealing associate of Earl Campbell.
Crown prosecutor Clayton Walker told the jury to look at the “big picture” of the case and ask if the girl’s account made sense within itself and when compared with other evidence.
“If she is telling the truth about what happened to her, then she has had a truly traumatic experience,” Walker said.
“If you believe the essence of her allegations, then it follows that the charges are proved.”
Walker said the girl gave a highly personal and intimately detailed account of what had happened to her, which he described as “the worst time of her life”.
The jury had seen an evidential interview recorded with her when she was 16.
“Did that account appear fabricated?,” he asked.
Another relative’s evidence was that the girl went missing for three days and came back in a “completely different emotional state” but wouldn’t talk about it.
She later contemplated taking her own life, Walker said.
Earl Campbell’s partner, Linda Kelly, had said in a text he also “disappeared” for about three days at the same time, Walker said.
The girl disclosed the alleged sexual offending in a police interview about the ram-raid 18 months after it happened.
Walker said the trial had heard how intimidating Earl Campbell could be.
“Does it make any sense that she should make up false allegations about him?
“That’s what it all boils down to – has she told the truth about the essential matters?”
Earl Campbell told the jury he did not do any of the crimes the Crown had accused him of.
He had been at home with Kelly when the arena was raided, and at the motel with her on the following night, when the girl and her relative had visited there to buy cannabis.
Kelly had given evidence in support of this and she was an “honest witness”, he said.
Using a profanity to describe them, Campbell said he hated people who offended sexually against under-age girls.
He said that the young woman had given six interviews to police and the details changed between the transcripts.
“Lies can change ... the truth stays constant,” he said.
He said the Crown had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he was guilty of any of the charges.
“The only safe verdicts are not guilty.”
Counsel Scott Jefferson, representing Ricky Campbell, said the girl had been taken to the police station by the relative, who had an “axe to grind” with Earl Campbell.
He said she had told lies.
“It is plain as the nose on your face,” Jefferson said.
“The problem with the Crown case is that she is neither a credible or reliable witness.”
Justice Helen Cull will address the jury of eight women and four men on Monday before they retire to consider the verdicts.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME's Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke's Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.
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