Hamilton dentist Rahul Gautam, left, leaves the Hamilton District Court this afternoon after the first day of his three-day trial in which he is defending three charges of indecent assault. Photo / Belinda Feek
A “foolish” Waikato dentist is accused of plying a woman with wine, groping her breasts and genitals and trying to kiss her on the lips on the pretence of giving her a driving lesson.
Rahul Gautam, the owner of Hamilton Emergency Dental Centre, accepts that he touched the complainant’s breasts and tried to kiss her.
However, he is defending the charges on the basis that he didn’t realise the complainant was not willing.
Gautam is on trial in the Hamilton District Court, fighting three charges of indecent assault after an incident at his “massive” Tamahere house on March 27, 2024.
Gautam is accused of touching the woman’s breasts, touching her genital area, and moving her face towards him and kissing her on the lips.
The complainant has automatic name suppression.
Gautam took the woman to his house on the pretence of giving her a driving lesson.
Soon after arriving, the complainant alleged Gautam made her take her top off and spent between 20 and 30 minutes attempting to grab and fondle her breasts as they sat on his bed, before putting his hand down her pants.
Gautam’s lawyer, Philip Morgan, KC, told the jury his client was a “foolish man thinking that he might have a romantic interlude with the complainant”.
“And the complainant was not interested in him romantically at all.”
He urged the jury to focus on what happened.
“For example, the defendant accepts that he did touch the breasts of the complainant.
“He does, for example, accept that he did kiss the complainant, but it wasn’t on the lips ... it was on her cheek at her request.”
However, Gautam denied touching her genitals.
He urged the jury to consider the elements of the charge and whether, as right-thinking members of the community, Gautam’s actions were indecent.
“The defence case is ... that the defendant actually thought that - and you may think very foolishly - that the woman was a willing participant in what took place.
“And he had no appreciation that what was happening here was distasteful to her, and thus, when you are considering these charges ... he didn’t appreciate what he was doing ... would be regarded as indecent.”
In outlining the Crown case, prosecutor Amy Alcock told the jury of six women and six men that it was relevant to note the defendant’s wife and daughter were overseas at the time.
As Gautam and the complainant drove to his house, he asked her if she trusted him, and then began trying to hold her hand.
When they arrived, he drove his car straight into his garage, closing the door behind them.
The woman was “understandably” confused but agreed to go into his house.
There, he grabbed two wine glasses, a bottle of “chilled red wine”, and said he would take her on a tour of the house.
However, he led her straight to his bedroom, which was on the second floor of the house, closing the door behind him.
He then closed the curtains and turned on the television, providing the only source of light in the room.
He sat on the bed, while the complainant, who was uncomfortable, remained standing and making comments about the nice things that were in his room.
Gautam asked the complainant to sit on the bed.
She said, “No”, but he persisted, and she ultimately agreed, sitting as far away as possible from him.
He kept telling her to relax, gave her a glass of wine, and slowly began moving closer to her.
He tried to grab her hand, but she pulled it away, and he asked her to remove her top.
She refused, but he persisted, and she ultimately agreed and was left wearing her singlet.
Gautam then moved closer to her, leaned on her chest and began rubbing her stomach, and put his hand under her singlet and grabbed and fondled her breasts.
She moved his hand away and asked him to stop. Gautam said he was “sorry”.
But he moved towards her again, touching her stomach and breasts.
Feeling stuck, she suggested they go out on to his balcony to get some fresh air.
In her evidence, the complainant said Gautam mentioned they used to have “lots of chickens and lots of ducks, but they just eat and poop everywhere”.
“So most of them were shot, and some of them were released into the wild.
“I told him I wasn’t a big fan ... of killing animals.”
Gautam said it was okay and reassured her that he hadn’t shot any of them, but said that he did have a gun in the house.
“He said that very directly and then insisted that we go back inside.”
After she finished her first glass of wine, Gautam insisted that she have another.
She said she didn’t want to, but was given another one anyway.
With almost every question, she tried to divert her answers back to her husband and told him that she was loyal to him and that she would never do anything to hurt him.
“He said he was loyal to his wife, too.
“At that point, it didn’t really feel like it, considering the circumstances, but I felt like I was stuck and didn’t really have a choice.”
The complainant said Gautam’s repeated attempts at touching her breasts went on for about 20 or 30 minutes.
At one point, when they were sitting on the bed, he put his hand down her pants.
She removed it and commented that it was sunset and that she should be going home.
“He said ‘No, just stay a bit longer’.
“I didn’t really want to stay longer, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice.”
Gautam then said once she’d finished her wine, they could leave, so she finished it.
However, he got a second bottle and gave her another glass.
“I drank it as fast as I could because I just wanted to get out of there.”
After about another 10 or 15 minutes, Gautam said they could leave.
They began leaving, and she noted in her interview that he had a hydroslide in his backyard, which she thought was “fricken weird”.
Gautam also told her that he had two living rooms, one of which was for “more higher-class people”, she said.
As they went to walk into the garage, he stood in front of the door and wouldn’t let her through until she kissed him on the lips.
“He kept trying, and I would move my face, and then he moved my face [and kissed me].”
Two minutes after arriving home, she told her husband what happened.
Shortly afterwards, she received a text from Gautam, “basically suggesting round two”.
She didn’t see Gautam again, and instead went away for the weekend before going to police.
The trial, overseen by Judge Tini Clark, is set down for three days and involves five witnesses.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.