Jordan Tegus, 27, is on trial in the Wellington District Court, facing 17 charges including rape, indecent assault, attempting to pervert the course of justice and breaching a protection order. Photo / Catherine Hutton
Jordan Tegus, 27, is on trial in the Wellington District Court, facing 17 charges including rape, indecent assault, attempting to pervert the course of justice and breaching a protection order. Photo / Catherine Hutton
WARNING: This story contains allegations of sexual offending
Jordan Tegus updated his Instagram account with heart emojis and the words “I miss you”.
His message was directed towards a woman he was forbidden from contacting, and yet, reading it, she knew it was for her.
Contact between thetwo was supposed to have ceased after a protection order was granted following allegations of serious sexual offending, which he denies.
He also denies two charges of perverting the course of justice and a charge of breaching a protection order, which relate to events after the initial complaint was laid.
Jordan Tegus, 27, is on trial in the Wellington District Court. Photo / Catherine Hutton.
Earlier this week, the court was shown two short graphic videos of the two involved in sex acts.
In one, the woman appears to have her eyes closed. She later told police she believed she was asleep at the time and was adamant she’d never agreed to being filmed on either occasion.
Meanwhile, Tegus maintains the sex was consensual, with his lawyer Tony Bamford earlier telling the jury the woman’s reliability and credibility were at issue.
Bamford said it was clear both had an interest in sex and suggested she’d consented to acts, even if she found them painful, because she wanted to “make things good for him”.
He told the jury his client was adamant that if she didn’t want sexual activity to continue, he would respect that and stop.
‘He was nice at the start’
The woman gave evidence by way of a series of pre-recorded interviews played to the jury.
In those interviews, she describes how, after that initial message following Tegus’ arrest, they began communicating more frequently, mostly on Instagram.
She said Tegus told her not to show anyone the messages and to delete them after she’d read them.
He’d set up fake Instagram accounts, sharing the passwords so she could access them, she said.
They even arranged to meet on the capital’s waterfront. The first time, he gave her a necklace, telling her it featured real diamonds, and asked her to blame her mother for the charges he faced.
At the second meeting, days later, he told her to sit in the back seat of his car, worried that the police were following him. His concerns weren’t unfounded. Ten minutes later, as they sat in the car talking, the police swooped and Tegus was arrested.
The Crown said contact between the two ramped up after the second arrest and they exchanged daily messages on Instagram.
“He was nice at the start just to get me back, and once he thought he had me, he was really nasty,” the woman told the court.
He’d call her derogatory names and rate her looks out of 10, giving her the lowest score of 1/10 and telling her she was ugly and that other girls were prettier, she said.
She said he’d demand she send him several photos of herself a day, insisting her face had to be in every frame. She’d talk to him while in the shower and also take photos of herself before she went out so he could check if her outfits were too revealing.
In return, he’d send photos of his penis, bottom and body.
She told the court they never met in person during this time, but he controlled her over the phone, trying to isolate her from family and friends, and at one point issued her an ultimatum: him or her family.
There was also talk about the upcoming court case, during which he told her he’d never hurt her, she said.
He suggested she not show up to give evidence and should pay the fine for not appearing.
In Instagram messages between the two of them, the woman told him she’d signed her police report only because her mother would disown her if she didn’t, something she went on to admit was not true.
Later, she asked Tegus if she should say she wasn’t in the right frame of mind when she made the complaint.
Asked by Crown prosecutor Claire Hislop if the woman had told the truth about Tegus to the police, the woman said she had.
The trial before Judge Noel Sainsbury is expected to continue into next week.
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.
