WARNING: This article discusses allegations of sexual assault and may be upsetting to some readers.
A sports coach who saw potential in a 14-year-old girl gave her massages before he allegedly became more cavalier and sexualised in his behaviour towards her.
“He told me massages would help me move my body better,” she said in an evidential interview.
As the girl prepared for a national competition, she allegedly found herself in the position that if she said no, she would lose his coaching.
“That’s what I was scared of. If I said no, I wouldn’t be able to carry on with [the sport]. I wanted to please him,” she said.
Now, the Whangārei business owner is facing six charges of indecent assault of an under 16-year-old and one charge of unlawful sexual connection.
The man or the business cannot be named due to court suppression orders.
Crown lawyer Joshua Harvey opened the case to the jury on Wednesday at the Whangārei District Court detailing how the pair came to know each other.
The man reportedly took the girl under his wing as he believed she was talented in the sport.
As she progressed in the sport and with nationals approaching, their time together grew, including situations where they had dinner together and watched movies.
The Crown alleges the man’s offending began with massaging the complainant on her back and front and over months progressed to a more serious incident of digitally penetrating her.
“It started under the pretences of massages ... He became more cavalier in his sexual interests and behaviour,” Harvey said.
It is also alleged the man forced the girl to touch his penis and she reported he would often “grind” himself against her.
In an evidential interview played to the jury, the girl said her coach told her the massaging would help her body.
The schoolgirl said her coach eventually persuaded her to roll on her back and allegedly massaged her naked chest.
“It would happen every night, it just kept happening,” she said.
The girl alleges the man made comments about other females’ weight and often flirted with her which made her feel uncomfortable.
As the alleged indecent assaults continued the girl said she never said anything because she didn’t think “it was serious enough”.
“I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it because I didn’t want him to get angry at me.
“He would manipulate me into doing these sort of things. I didn’t really understand what manipulation was when it was happening,” she said.
The girl alleges after many months, she removed herself from the scene but chose to come forward so he would not do it to any other girls.
“Him telling the girls that it’s okay. I don’t want him doing that to other people, it’s not a nice feeling, it’s manipulation, it’s gross. He knew what he was doing and I obviously didn’t understand,” she said.
Defence lawyer John Munro said in his opening statements that the girl was lying.
“I feel confident in the fact that when you see us demonstrate this to you, you’re going to see a different picture,” Munro said to the jury.
Munro pointed out that it was human nature to naturally recoil when hearing of sexual allegations.
“There’s going to be lies. There are good reasons for the lies. We’ll show you, you’ll see.”
“Once a lie, always a lie and the lie doesn’t get stronger,” Munro said.
The trial before Judge Gene Tomlinson is due to finish at the end of the week.
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.