Former policeman on rape power trip, Crown claims

Former police officer Tyler Stephens was on a power trip when he raped and beat his girlfriend, a prosecutor suggested to a jury at the High Court in Auckland yesterday.

Stephens, aged 25, of Blockhouse Bay, faces one charge of injuring with intent to injure by headbutting the woman twice in the forehead, two counts of assault, three of unlawful sexual connection and one of rape.

The offences allegedly happened on September 19, 1999, and January 1 and May 5 last year, when Stephens was a serving constable.

In his closing address, Stuart Grieve, QC, told the jury: "People who rape and sexually abuse women are frequently motivated not by matters sexual but by power - it is about power over the female."

He suggested that this case was an example of the exercise of such power.

Mr Grieve said that in relation to one of the incidents, after the couple had broken up, Stephens did not like the idea of a woman "who had been his" going with another man.

He said Stephens had tried to portray himself as a good family man and a surrogate father for the woman's two daughters, in a subtle attempt to make the jury think he could not do such horrible things to their mother.

His denials were "deliberate and cold-blooded lies."

Mr Grieve dismissed as nonsense a defence suggestion that the woman and her flatmate had colluded to manufacture their stories.

In his closing address, defence counsel Peter Kaye, appearing with Roger Chambers, said it was remarkable that the Crown had referred to the theory that some men commit rape motivated by power.

While the woman portrayed Stephens as controlling and dominating, there was evidence that he in fact was "subservient" to her.

The evidence was that he was devoted to the children and the woman had loved him, but sadly the family unit broke down in turmoil, each side now branding the other a blatant liar, said Mr Kaye.

"When a relationship breaks down, sometimes there is a feeling for a need for vengeance, to get the ledger square, to get back at your partner for what you perceive to be some injustice."

Mr Kaye said issues such as maintenance, access and custody could turn everything to "custard."

The jury might query why the woman would put herself through a trial.

But Mr Kaye said that once a complaint had been laid and the investigative process started, women rarely appreciated at the time that it was like a snowball running downhill.

Corroboration was lacking on crucial issues, he said.

Stephens had suffered no marks despite the alleged headbutting, and he had no marks on his penis, though the woman claimed she had bitten him when he made her perform oral sex.

After one alleged incident when the woman claimed she fled to Wellington, she rang Stephens a few days later - despite the horrible things he was supposed to have done - and they got back together, said Mr Kaye.

Justice Mark O'Regan will sum up to the jury today.