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Home / Northern Advocate

'We trust the police': Woman denies inviting top cop into her home before alleged sex assault

By Chelsea Boyle
Chelsea Boyle is a reporter for the New Zealand Herald·NZ Herald·
13 Feb, 2019 05:05 AM2 mins to read

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Kevin Burke stands in the dock, accused of sex crimes. Photo / Dean Purcell

Kevin Burke stands in the dock, accused of sex crimes. Photo / Dean Purcell

A woman accusing top cop Kevin Stephen Burke of sexual assault denies inviting him to her home to drink and wanting him to stay the night.

Two women have alleged Burke, a detective inspector based in Northland, sexually assaulted them.

Burke denies the two charges of indecent assault and two of unlawful sexual connection.

The first complainant continued to give evidence in the High Court at Auckland after earlier today denying being romantically involved with a conman Burke was investigating.

Burke's lawyer Arthur Fairley asked if she invited Burke to her home and asked him to bring wine.

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"No, I did not… I would never ask somebody to bring wine," she said.

Fairley asked if Burke appeared to be breaking any "rules".

His appearance seemed "very, very inappropriate", she said, but she believed he was there to discuss the fraudster she had reported to Orewa police weeks prior.

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"Why didn't you send him on his way… being a strong-minded woman?" Fairley asked.

The woman, whose name is suppressed under law, asked if she was supposed to report him to police.

"Well, why didn't you?" Fairley said.

The woman wondered what she was supposed to tell police - that a police officer had brought her beer and wine?

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"Well, hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it?" she said.

Fairley asked if she was comfortable having a near-stranger in her house.

"This is a police officer, this is not somebody off the street," she replied.

"He's a police officer. We trust the police."

Yesterday, the woman alleged Burke arrived at her Auckland home uninvited in 2002, weeks after she reported information to police.

The court heard he drank a box of beers he had brought to her house.

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She offered him something to eat and made up the spare bedroom because she was concerned about his ability to drive safely, she previously told the court.

"I have never seen someone drink so much," she said today.

But she alleges Burke instead pushed her to the floor and sexually assaulted her.

"I kept trying to push back. It just happened so quickly," she said.

The trial before Justice Sarah Katz is set down for two weeks and the second complainant is scheduled to give evidence tomorrow.

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