Inoke Nakadavotu (top) and Cameron Hill are on trial over allegations of a sexual assault on a woman several years ago. Photo / Facebook
WARNING: This article discusses allegations of sexual assault and may be upsetting to some readers.
A text message saying “threesome?” sent by one rugby player to another is at the heart of a sexual assault trial where both men say the text was only a joke.
But what followed has split their story, with one claiming he was told to “go in and have a go” with a woman, while the other says he would never say something like that.
Cameron Hill, 26, and Inoke Nakadavotu, 27, are on trial at the Whangārei District Court on one charge each of unlawful sexual connection by sexual violation.
The Crown said the night began at a Whangārei bar, where the woman and her friends crossed paths with the two Mid Northern rugby players who were out drinking with other club members several years ago. She knew Hill, but not Nakadavotu.
When the bars closed, the woman went to Hill’s house with several people.
Between 3am and 4am, when all but the woman and the two accused players were left at Hill’s house, text messages were sent between Hill and Nakadavotu that have been presented in court.
“Threesome??? oh haha,” Hill said in a message he sent to Nakadavotu.
“We on,” Nakadavotu responded.
“Oh s*** yeah hahaha,” Hill sent back.
Hill and the woman had consensual sex, a fact that has not been disputed by the Crown or defence lawyers.
Hill then allegedly left the room and a short time later the woman awoke to Nakadavotu allegedly sexually violating her.
“I never gave him any suggestion I was interested in him, I was asleep,” she said in an evidential interview played in court.
It is the Crown’s case that Nakadavotu is the principal offender and Hill is equally liable for allegedly encouraging the violation to occur.
In her interview, the woman said immediately after the alleged incident she was confused and wanted to go home.
“I was gonna run but I was a long way away,” she said.
“When you and Cam were talking was there any conversation about a tag team or anything like that?” she was asked.
“No,” she responded.
She said Hill calmed her down because she was “hysterical” and she went back to sleep.
But when she woke in the morning, she had received a text from a friend and rugby player who said he heard she had a threesome.
Hungover, the woman was still confused and left the house before Hill and Nakadavotu woke up.
Over the following weeks she confided in friends and pressed Hill for answers via Instagram over what happened because people were talking.
“Where did you go? I remember something happened idk and I just felt like s*** and wanted to go home,” she said to Hill in a message asking where he went when he left the room.
“I’m really sorry I can’t help because I don’t remember too much myself we were all pretty smashed,” Hill sent back.
In another message, the woman said she was not doing so well and had heard rumours from other people.
A month later, Hill messaged her saying people were saying he had taken advantage of her and had a threesome.
When the woman asked who had said that, he replied: “From a Mid-Northern source”.
“All I’ve told my mates is you were all good but Nox was f** weird,” the woman sent to Hill.
Nakadavotu’s lawyer Wayne McKean put it to the woman that she was relying on what others said because she could not remember what happened.
“Even a month after you still didn’t know what had happened?” McKean asked.
“No,” she responded.
McKean then said her memory was influenced by what a friend told her.
“No, if anything, it validated it,” she responded.
The friend and rugby player who contacted her that morning gave evidence he received a message about 6am from an unknown source saying the woman, Hill and Nakadavotu had got together during the night.
“I replied asking who said that but they didn’t reply or say anything back,” he told the court.
The friend said the woman responded saying she had not had a threesome with them. He checked her Snapchat location and confirmed she was at Hill’s house.
The friend said he did not know who sent the message and had since deleted his Snapchat account.
Another friend of the woman gave evidence saying she had heard the woman had slept with Hill and Nakodavato on the same night.
“After you heard those rumours did you see Nox?” Crown lawyer Danette Cole asked the friend.
“Yep,” she said.
“Did you speak to him about that?” Cole asked.
“He said it was just rumours and the boys were just talking s***,” she responded.
Hill and Nakadavotu’s video statements, where they were questioned about the threesome text message, were played in court.
Nakadavotu said when he received the text from Hill, while they were all sitting in the lounge, he thought it was a joke.
He was asked if the woman might have seen the text message.
“I don’t think so,” he responded.
Nakadavotu said he went to bed and Hill went into the room and “did his thing” with the woman.
About 30 minutes later he said Hill allegedly came into the room, turned the light on and told him “she wanted a turn”.
“He told me that she said it was okay and I double checked before coming in as well,” he said in his interview.
Nakadavotu said he went into the other room and asked her if it was okay if he could come in.
“She said to come in and close the door,” he said in his interview.
Nakadavotu said he took off his shirt, got into the bed and they allegedly began making out.
“I only touched her, that’s it,” he said.
“So your mouth was only ever where?” the officer in charge asked.
“On her mouth.”
Nakodovatu said the woman then realised who he was and told him to stop.
“She was surprised and she was quick to get out of bed. She just said to stop. I said okay,” Nakadavotu said.
“Your story differs a lot to Cam’s story,” the officer in charge said to Nakodavotu. “Did he put the idea to you first?”
“Yeah,” Nakodavotu replied.
“I’ll put it to you, you didn’t check with her that it’s okay, you didn’t kiss her, you just went straight under the covers. Do you have anything to say about that?” he was asked.
“Nah.”
In Hill’s video statement he was asked to respond to Nakadavotu’s version of events.
“I couldn’t work out how that would have happened, but in saying that, I can’t see myself going in and telling one of the boys to dig into a girl,” Hill said.
Hill was shown the text messages referring to a threesome and he said he was not aware of them.
“I didn’t even know we had these messages but it’s obvious, it’s pretty black and white, isn’t it?” Hill said.
“I’ve obviously said that, haven’t I? I don’t know about going into the room, into his room. I still don’t know about that, I feel like I don’t think I would be a person to be like that.”
Hill said if he put “haha” at the end of the text he would have been joking.
When asked why he left the room after he had sex with the woman and went into the lounge, he said he did not know.
Hill was also pressed about how the woman’s friend and rugby player would have received a text from someone so early in the morning about a threesome.
“For someone to hear that quickly in the morning, how do you think someone would have known that?” Hill was asked.
“I don’t know,” Hill responded.
“It’s hard when you can’t remember,” the officer said.
“Yeah, I don’t know.”
The trial is being heard before Judge Taryn Bayley and is expected to close by Friday.
The men no longer play for Mid Northern Rugby.
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.