'Gigolo' police recruit accused of rape

A solo-mother of three told a court today of her alleged rape by a police recruit she described as a "gigolo".

Mark James Tulloch, 31, went on trial in the High Court at Wellington, charged with raping a woman while two of her children slept - and a third watched.

The two met on website www.NZDating.co.nz, sending numerous messages to each other, first online, then via cellphone. After getting to know each other, the text messages became increasingly sexual, the woman told the court today.

The pair met face-to-face at a bar in Whitby, Porirua. They talked about previous encounters had through the site.

"He said he had met a woman who asked him to move into her flat, where he was used as a gigolo," the woman said.

"He wanted to be a toy-boy [to] a mature woman with money."

She said they had about four drinks each, his earlier lack of confidence dissolved and he began making eye contact with her .

"I asked him if he would like to come back to my house for a shag."

Tulloch and the woman drove back to her house, each in their own cars.

She sent the baby-sitter home and put her children to bed.

She then gave Tulloch oral sex in the lounge, went outside for a cigarette and talked to a neighbour with whom she was friendly. The pair then went over to her neighbour's house for more drinks .

After she drank about four more drinks and he about two, the pair returned to her place, where he allegedly hit her in the head, took her to her room and raped her.

Then he left, telling her couldn't stand the sound of her voice.

However, she was accused of making it all up when defence counsel Mike Antunovic pointed out numerous discrepancies between the 48-page police brief of evidence and the accuser's account as told to the court.

She said the differences in her stories were due to post traumatic stress disorder and shock due to the rape.

Under questioning, she admitted to taking two Prozac per day, except when she went out drinking.

"But who isn't on antidepressants nowadays?" she asked the court.

During the alleged rape, she just wanted him out of the house her two sons and daughter were in.

"I didn't know at that time there was a peephole in her bedroom and she (her daughter) was listening to it all," she told the court.

Mr Antunovic also pointed out a previous complaint laid by the woman against another man, whose name and occupation is suppressed. That claim had not been substantiated.

She found the unnamed man on findsomeone.co.nz, of which she said "it's part of Trade Me[.co.nz] - very nice site".

NZDating.co.nz, by comparison, was "just a shagging site", she said.

She said the man had sent her naked photographs of himself wearing only a hat, and other photographs of him masturbating.

She had sent him naked pictures of herself in an effort to attract him back, Mr Antunovic said, linking her spurned attentions to the rape allegations against Tulloch.

"You turned his life upside down. You don't care who you harm when you get angry, do you?" Mr Antunovic asked her.

The trial continues tomorrow.

- NZPA