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Home / Crime

Man denies forcing sex on sleeping woman

By melissa.nightingale@wanganuichronicle.co.nz
Whanganui Chronicle·
17 Aug, 2016 04:37 AM3 mins to read

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A Whanganui man denies ever holding a woman down and raping her, or having sex with her while she was asleep, his lawyer says.

One charge of rape has been withdrawn in the trial in the Whanganui District Court for the man, whose name is suppressed.

Three charges remain - one representative charge of rape, and two counts of unlawful sexual connection.

The complainant, who was being cross examined on Wednesday by defence lawyer Peter Brosnahan, said she would often wake to either find the defendant having sex with her, or touching her genitals.

She said she told him it was not okay to do so, and that if he wanted to have sex, he should wake her up first.

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"When somebody's asleep, they're not there to engage in that," she said in court.

Mr Brosnahan pointed to the woman's evidence from court on Tuesday where she said there would be occasions where she woke up to the defendant touching her and they would go on to have consensual sex.

But there were other occasions she was upset that he had touched her while she was asleep, instead of waking her up first.

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"Sometimes you tell us it's okay, sometimes it's not," Mr Brosnahan said.

"How's he gonna know what night it's gonna be?"

The woman said she was never okay with the defendant starting anything with her while she was asleep.

Mr Brosnahan said the defendant denied ever starting intercourse with her while she slept.

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He also pointed to the first time the complainant went to the police about the defendant, and how she never mentioned her rape allegations at that point.

The woman told the court she was worried the defendant would pay someone to come and rape her, as he had been "obsessed" with having a threesome or with watching her have sex with somebody else.

She earlier mentioned finding a "string" tied around the casters of the bed, with "nooses" on its ends. She spoke of her fear the string was for harming her or putting around her neck.

She said it was "horrendous" leaving the string where it was for four days until the police could come and take photos of it.

Mr Brosnahan showed the string to the jury, demonstrating that it was a thin, stretchy material.

"It's not a noose, it's a tied little wristlet," he said.

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The trial continues before Judge Chris Sygrove and a jury of six men and six women.

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