Brooke sex claims cast shadow on retail plans

Robin Brooke publicly apologised in February for an incident in Fiji on New Year's Eve. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Robin Brooke's future as a New World supermarket owner remains unclear after a meeting with senior management following allegations that he had sex with a drunk teenage girl.

The former All Black is facing allegations of having sex with the girl, then 18, after a night of heavy drinking with her and a friend in 1998.

She told TVNZ show Close Up she and Brooke met and had had consensual sex a year earlier, when she was 17 and he was 30.

A friend of the woman said Brooke bought both women multiple shots of a liqueur on the night in question, before accompanying them home.

She woke to find Brooke having sex with the "comatose" teenager and told him to stop, an allegation backed up by a male flatmate.

No complaint has been laid with police. But the allegations seem to have affected Brooke's plans to sell the New World supermarket he owns in Tauranga to buy a bigger branch in Warkworth, north of Auckland.

Parent company Foodstuffs would not answer questions about whether the deal was on hold, but said an internal inquiry was underway.

"Foodstuffs can confirm that senior management met with Mr Brooke on Wednesday to discuss allegations made in the media. Foodstuffs will now consider the matter in accordance with its internal processes," said a statement released by a public relations firm.

The woman complained to the New Zealand Rugby Union at the time, but did not go to the police.

Mike Banks, the All Black manager at the time, said the woman had complained that Brooke had been drinking and refused to leave her property. But Mr Banks said he was not told of the sex allegation.

"That's the point. The allegations that were [made] on air on Close Up were far more serious than those that were conveyed to me by the complainants," Mr Banks has said.

Former All Black coach John Hart had no knowledge of the alleged incident until much later.

"It wasn't until probably nine months later - when there was some speculation around the captaincy at that time - when I was given a letter ... from someone who had written to the Rugby Union saying that in light of this incident ... if Robin was appointed as captain of the All Blacks, he [the writer] would have something to say."

Asked if the incident had influenced the decision not to make Brooke captain, Mr Hart said no.

"Not at all. We'd already made our decision and at no stage did I discuss with Robin the captaincy and at no stage was it offered and at no stage did the panel agree that he was the appropriate All Black captain."

The allegations follow revelations that Brooke groped a 15-year-old Auckland girl at a Fijian resort on New Year's Eve. He also assaulted her 17-year-old male friend, who came to her aid.

In February, Brooke publicly apologised to the families involved, as well as to the New Zealand public, for his behaviour.

He paid a financial settlement to the families and said he had not engaged in similar behaviour before.